Service providers and enterprises are investing heavily in large and hyper-scale data centers to deliver content, data processing, and communication services. The applications delivering these services must have access to high-speed storage and networking, be secure and run in virtualized and bare metal environments.
However, infrastructure services such as virtual switching, security, and storage can consume a significant number of CPU cycles, especially at higher performance thresholds, reducing the number of cores available for revenue-earning services. Smart network interface cards (SmartNICs) can accelerate these infrastructure services, freeing up cores to increase network and application performance.1 2
Introducing Intel’s Portfolio of SmartNICs
Accelerate key workloads, improve performance and agility, and enable new uses cases from the data center to the edge with Intel’s smartNICs.
Intel’s End-to-End SmartNIC Portfolio
Silicom FPGA SmartNIC N5010
First hardware programmable 4x100GE FPGA accelerated SmartNIC with performance and scale for the 5G core (UPF), and more.
Inventec FPGA SmartNIC C5020X
FPGA-based smartNIC with an Intel® Xeon® D SoC for a hardware programmable data path and improved core utilization.
Intel® FPGA Programmable Acceleration Card N3000
Intel FPGA–based SmartNICs for network function virtualization (NFV) for both application and infrastructure.
SmartNICs for Enterprise and Cloud
Data Center Acceleration with Intel® FPGAs
SmartNICs with Intel® FPGAs for cloud service providers help make the most of network capabilities and help improve revenue from infrastructure investments.
Intel’s SmartNIC to Power VMware’s Next-Gen Infrastructure
Intel technology enables VMware to give customers unified management of virtual machines, containers and bare metal environments.
Announcing Project Monterey – Redefining Hybrid Cloud Architecture
Intel® Innovation in SmartNICs enables higher performance for edge nodes, network infrastructure and data center compute.
SmartNICs for Network
Intel SmartNICs for Telecommunications
Intel FPGA–based SmartNICs can help optimize the efficiency and performance of your converged wireless-wireline network.
FPGA Virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN)
Unlock new use cases and increase network efficiency with Intel’s broad portfolio of network accelerators, combined with Altiostar’s 5G-ready open virtualized radio access network (Open vRAN) software solution.
Intel, Kaloom Create P4- programmable Network Solutions
Advanced network systems with the P4 programming language and Intel® Tofino family of Ethernet switch ASICs.
Real-World SmartNIC Benefits
Discover what customers and partners have to say about the benefits of SmartNICs from Intel.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a SmartNIC?
A SmartNIC is a Network Interface Controller that accelerates networking functions and is adaptable to existing and emerging use cases including security, virtualization, storage, load balancing and data path optimization. SmartNICs extend Foundational NICs and provide more advanced functionality by including a programmable engine such as CPU and/or FPGA to accelerate tasks that the server CPU would normally handle.
How do SmartNICs from Intel work?
SmartNICs from Intel leverage existing Intel Ethernet networking capabilities where acceleration is achieved by processing tasks, which the system CPU would normally handle, through a tightly-coupled compute engine such as a CPU and/or FPGA. Adaptability is achieved by standard and easy-to-use programmability of hardware functions and is significantly software defined.
What is the Intel® FPGA SmartNIC C5000X platform architecture?
An Intel reference architecture that provides service providers and solution providers an efficient and cost-effective design to build production deployable SmartNIC for the cloud data centers.
What are the features and benefits of Intel® Smart Network Adapters (Intel® SNA)?
Intel’s broad portfolio of technologies including processors, Ethernet adapters and FPGAs provide cloud and communication service providers the right solution needed for their deployments.
Our new Intel® Smart Network Adapters (Intel® SNA) enabled by Intel® FPGAs, Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, and Intel® Ethernet Network Adapters allow for both software and additional hardware re-programmability of the data path providing a direct ingest path of network data to be processed immediately without using resources on the server host processor. These Intel’s SmartNIC provide fast time to market solutions while being flexible and future proof so that your infrastructure and solutions can be adapted over time.
More Resources
Explore more content around Intel products and solutions to accelerate your data from the edge to the cloud.
Intel® FPGA
Intel® FPGAs help enable fast-to-market, scalable, and customizable solutions.
Intel® FPGA Acceleration Hub
Learn how Intel’s acceleration solutions help you move, process, and store your data faster and more efficiently.
Product and Performance Information
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Intel has a diverse portfolio of acceleration solutions to meet the evolving needs of network, cloud and enterprise workloads.