Xilinx Launches Alveo SN1000 SmartNIC

By Todd R. Weiss

February 24, 2021

FPGA vendor Xilinx has debuted its latest SmartNIC model, the Alveo SN1000, with integrated “composability” features that allow enterprise users to add their own custom networking functions to supplement its built-in networking.

By providing deep flexibility and customization, the Alveo SN1000 gives customers, including hyperscalers, cloud users and a wide range of enterprise users, tools that will give them the ability to create the custom network capabilities needed by their organizations, according to Xilinx.

The new SN1000 SmartNIC was unveiled by the company on Feb. 23 (Tuesday), along with a new accelerated algorithmic trading platform and a new Xilinx FPGA app store where customers can find FPGA applications they need in one place.

Inside the Alveo SN1000 SmartNICs

Xilinx NIC/SmartNIC family

Built into the latest SN1000 SmartNICs are the adaptability of Xilinx Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), isolated control and data planes and the company’s Vitis Networking, which allows P4, C and C++ programming by developers. The SN1000s offer software-defined hardware acceleration for all function offloads, which when combined with its other features allows customers to designate workloads to components as needed for peak situational performance.

Using an open architecture, the new 100Gb/s SmartNICs directly offload CPU-intensive tasks to optimize networking performance for users, according to Xilinx. With the new SmartNICs, the company hopes to make it easier for software developers to create and deploy software-defined, hardware-accelerated applications on Alveo accelerator cards.

For customers, these features mean they can get off-the-shelf network functions from Xilinx while also being able to add their own needed functions and services and chain them together seamlessly, Pejman Roshan, the vice president of marketing in the company’s datacenter group, said in an interview.

“That service chaining isn’t a new concept, but the fact that it’s plumbed into the hardware pipeline in the manner which [a customer] decides what works best for [them and their organization] …that’s what’s innovative here. This is the first [to do that].”

Traditional standard NICs used to be the preferred choice for datacenter deployments in the past, Kartik Srinivasan, director of marketing for the SmartNIC team at Xilinx, explained. “They were responsible for packet traffic coming in and out of the server, in and out of the storage from the network. But they started putting a burden on the CPU when you started approaching the 25Gb speeds and higher. That’s when the offload mix came into existence and provided some relief.”

In earlier SmartNIC designs “the CPU took away a lot of the packet processing from the host into the standard NIC and by itself, most of them were ASIC-based (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) implementations.” Those designs provided limited offloads depending on the capabilities of each device, said Srinivasan.

Based on the company’s 16nm UltraScale+ architecture, the SN1000 SmartNICs are powered by the low-latency Xilinx XCU26 FPGA and a 16-core Arm processor. ​SN1000 SmartNICs deliver dual-QSFP ports for 10/25/100Gb/s connectivity with leading small packet performance and a PCIe Gen 4 interconnect. The cards are available in a full height, half length (FHHL) form factor in a 75-watt power envelope.

The SN1000 SmartNICs can be used for a wide range of networking, security, and storage offloads, such as Open vSwitch and virtualization acceleration, according to Xilinx. The Alveo SN1000 SmartNICs are expected to be generally available in March 2021.

The SmartNIC marketplace has been accelerating in recent years as customer demand has risen in reaction to new designs that provide greater performance and improved expandability.

The big chip companies have been noticing trends like these, with AMD revealing its $35 billion acquisition of Xilinx in October 2020, helping AMD to keep pace during a time of consolidation in the semiconductor industry. GPU rival and market leader Nvidia made two big moves of its own in the last 23 months–announcing its intentions in September 2020 to acquire chip IP vendor Arm for $40 billion, and the completion of its $6.9 billion acquisition of interconnect vendor Mellanox. The Mellanox deal quickly got Nvidia firmly entrenched in DPUs of its own, as well as in networking innovations that are now being woven into its core markets.

A Unique SmartNIC Advancement: Analyst

Baron Fung, a server and server connectivity analyst with Dell’Oro Group, said he sees the heterogeneous architecture of the SN100—using both an Arm processor and an FPFGA—as “unique” in the marketplace. “This design allows end users the flexibility to customize the FPGA for a wide range of offload applications without compromising control plane functionality and reducing latency,” said Fung.

“Generally, one of the big hurdles in SmartNIC deployments is that the software development is lengthy and resource intensive, requiring teams of engineers that are versed in VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language),” said Fung.  “However, the SN1000 is compatible with programming such as P4, C and C++ that are commonly used by a wide range of data center networking equipment. In addition, the SN1000’s composable design enables end-users to insert and rearrange accelerator modules within the data path to shorten software development lead-time.”

While SmartNICs are generally used primarily in the hyperscale cloud market, the SN1000 should also appeal to a wide range of segments, from hyperscale cloud users to enterprise companies, said Fung. “More sophisticated hyperscale companies can customize the SN1000 starting from a clean slate, or enterprise customers can use accelerator modules that have been pre-programmed by Xilinx.”

In a recently published five-year forecast for the SmartNIC market, the Dell’Oro Group sees the segment growing from $245 million in 2020 to more than $1 billion by 2025, for a 33 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), said Fung.

Easing Algorithmic Trading

Xilinx also debuted an accelerated algorithmic trading (AAT) reference design for l0w-latency trading that addresses one of the main barriers to entry for high-frequency trading.

“Achieving sub-microsecond latency in algorithmic trading has traditionally required costly and time-consuming hardware development,” the company said in a press release. “The Vitis development platform now includes an accelerated algorithmic trading reference design which gives software developers the ability to quickly and cost-effectively deliver sub-microsecond trading performance without the need for custom hardware development.”

Xilinx says it has created a modular design that includes all the components for an end-to-end, low-latency trading solution that customers can further customize using C and C++ in the Vitis platform. The AAT reference design is available to Alveo customers at no cost.

Xilinx’s New FPGA App Store

Also announced by Xilinx is its new FPGA app store, which is built to include ready-to-deploy accelerated applications spanning Smart World AI video analytics to anti-money laundering and live video transcoding. Developed by Xilinx ecosystem partners, the containerized pre-built applications provide an easy way for customers to quickly find, evaluate, purchase and deploy accelerated applications to meet their requirements.

A version of this article first appeared on HPCwire sister site EnterpriseAI.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire