CPU, GPU…..DPU?

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About this video

Chuck explains why data centers added a Data Processing Unit alongside the CPU and GPU. Virtualization packed many virtual machines onto one server — he notes some hosts run 30 to 40 or more — and then networking, security, and storage were also virtualized through software such as VMware NSX, leaving the general-purpose CPU as a bottleneck, especially as networks rose toward 100 and 200 gigabits per second. A SmartNIC offloaded some network work, but NVIDIA’s BlueField-3 DPU goes further: it is described as a system on a chip, effectively a server inside a server with its own ARM processor, that can run ESXi under VMware vSphere 8’s Distributed Services Engine and fully own firewall and networking tasks. In NVIDIA’s lab on a 25 gigabit cluster, a Redis test he ran improved from 64 megabits per second and 548,000 operations per second on a standard NIC to 90 megabits per second and 770,000 operations per second with the DPU, while also freeing the CPU. He also cites 30% efficiency increases from offloading and the DPU’s stated 400 gigabits per second capability.

Key takeaways

Virtualizing servers, then networking, security, and storage, overloaded the general-purpose CPU and made it a bottleneck
A SmartNIC offloads some network tasks, but a DPU is a fuller endpoint with its own ARM processor and operating system
NVIDIA’s BlueField-3 DPU is presented as a server inside a server that can run ESXi itself
In the demo, moving from a standard NIC to the DPU raised throughput and operations per second while leaving the CPU less stressed
The efficiency argument is consolidation: add specialized power to one server instead of filling racks with more servers

Episode details: published May 5, 2023 · 13:45 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are NetworkChuck’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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