NVIDIA Spectrum-X Combines Spectrum-4 Ethernet Switch With BlueField-3 DPU

NVIDIA Spectrum-X is an accelerated Ethernet platform designed to improve the performance and efficiency of Ethernet-based AI clouds. Spectrum-X networking platform combines NVIDIA Spectrum-4, BlueField-3 DPUs, and acceleration software, achieving almost 2x better overall AI performance and power efficiency and consistent, predictable performance in multi-tenant environments.

NVIDIA Spectrum-X is an accelerated Ethernet platform designed to improve the performance and efficiency of Ethernet-based AI clouds. Spectrum-X networking platform combines NVIDIA Spectrum-4, BlueField-3 DPUs, and acceleration software, achieving almost 2x better overall AI performance and power efficiency and consistent, predictable performance in multi-tenant environments.

NVIDIA Spectrum-X is powered by acceleration software and software development kits (SDKs), providing developers with the resources needed to build software-defined, cloud-native AI applications. The delivery of end-to-end capabilities reduces run times of massive transformer-based generative AI models, allowing network engineers, AI data scientists, and cloud service providers to improve results and make informed decisions faster. According to NVIDIA, the world’s top hyperscalers and cloud innovators are adopting NVIDIA Spectrum-X.

Blueprint and Testbed Supercomputer

As a blueprint and testbed for NVIDIA Spectrum-X reference designs, NVIDIA is building Israel-1, a hyperscale generative AI supercomputer to be deployed in its Israeli data center on Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers based on the NVIDIA HGX
H100 eight-GPU platform, BlueField-3 DPUs, and Spectrum-4 switches.

The NVIDIA Spectrum-X networking platform uses standards-based Ethernet, is interoperable with Ethernet-based stacks, and can be used in various AI applications. The platform starts with Spectrum-4, the first Ethernet switch built for AI networks. Advanced RoCE extensions work across the Spectrum-4 switches, BlueField-3 DPUs, and LinkX optics to create an end-to-end 400GbE network optimized for AI clouds.

NVIDIA Spectrum-X enhances multi-tenancy with performance isolation ensuring tenants’ AI workloads perform optimally and consistently. It can identify performance bottlenecks and features automated fabric validation to deliver better AI performance visibility.

Acceleration software driving Spectrum-X includes NVIDIA SDKs such as Cumulus Linux, pure SONiC, and NetQ, and together they enable the platform’s extreme performance. Also included is the NVIDIA DOCA software framework, the heart of BlueField DPUs.

Spectrum-X enables 256 200Gb/s ports connected by a single switch or 16,000 ports in a two-tier leaf-spine topology to support the growth and expansion of AI clouds while maintaining high-performance levels and minimizing network latency.

Companies offering NVIDIA Spectrum-X include Dell Technologies, Lenovo, and Supermicro.

Availability

NVIDIA Spectrum-X, Spectrum-4 switches, BlueField-3 DPUs, and 400G LinkX optics are available now.

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