Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs) and SmartNICs
Programmable network devices that intelligently manage system-level resources by securely accelerating networking and storage infrastructure functions in a data center.
Service providers and enterprises are investing heavily in hyper-scale data centers to deliver efficient compute for cloud native applications and micro-services. The applications delivering these services must have access to high-speed, low latency storage and a secure networking infrastructure.
However, infrastructure services such as virtual switching, security, and storage can consume a significant number of CPU cycles. Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs) accelerate network infrastructure, freeing up CPU cores for improved application performance. IPUs enable cloud service providers to customize infrastructure function deployments at the speed of software, while improving data center utilization by allowing for flexible workload placement.1 2
Learn More About Intel IPUs
Watch Guido Appenzeller, Datacenter and AI CTO, and Naru Sundar, Ethernet Products Group Architect, unveil new IPU products along with architectural details of an exciting new IPU device from Intel.
Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs) and SmartNICs
Inventec FPGA IPU C5020X Adapter
An FPGA-based IPU Adapter with an onboard Intel® Xeon® D SoC for hardware programmable data path, and improved server core utilization in the data center – based on the Intel® FPGA IPU C5000X-PL Platform.
Silicom FPGA SmartNIC N5010 Adapter
First hardware programmable 4x100GE FPGA accelerated IPU adapter with performance and scale for the 5G core (UPF), and more.
Silicom FPGA IPU C5010X
An FPGA-based IPU Adapter with an onboard Intel® Xeon® D SoC for hardware programmable data path, and improved server core utilization in the data center – based on the Intel® FPGA IPU C5000X-PL Platform.
IPUs for Enterprise and Cloud
Data Center Acceleration with Intel® FPGAs
IPUs with Intel® FPGAs for cloud service providers help make the most of network capabilities and help improve revenue from infrastructure investments.
Intel’s IPUs 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 IPUs enables higher performance for edge nodes, network infrastructure and data center compute.
IPUs 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 IPU Benefits
Discover what customers and partners have to say about the benefits of IPUs from Intel.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a SmartNIC?
A SmartNIC is a programmable network adapter card with programmable accelerators and Ethernet connectivity that can accelerate infrastructure applications running on the host.
What is an IPU?
An IPU is an advanced networking device with hardened accelerators and Ethernet connectivity that accelerates and manages infrastructure functions using tightly coupled, dedicated, programmable cores. An IPU offers full infrastructure offload and provides an extra layer of security by serving as a control point of the host for running infrastructure applications.
What is the difference between a SmartNIC and IPU?
An IPU is capable of offloading the entire infrastructure stack from the host and can control how the host attaches to this infrastructure. This gives the service provider an extra layer of security and control, enforced in hardware by the IPU. A SmartNIC has similar networking and offload capabilities as the IPU but remains under the control of the host as a peripheral.
How do IPUs from Intel work?
An IPU is capable of offloading the entire infrastructure stack from the host and can control how the host attaches to this infrastructure. This gives the service provider an extra layer of security and control, enforced in hardware by the IPU. A SmartNIC has similar networking and offload capabilities as the IPU but remains under the control of the host as a peripheral.
What is the Intel® FPGA IPU C5000X-PL platform architecture?
An Intel reference architecture that provides service providers and solution providers an efficient and cost-effective design to build production deployable IPU for the cloud data centers.
More Resources
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Product and Performance Information
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