{{Short description|Data processing hardware by Nvidia}}
'''Nvidia BlueField''' is a line of [[data processing unit]]s (DPUs) designed and produced by [[Nvidia]]. Initially developed by [[Mellanox Technologies]], the BlueField IP was acquired by Nvidia in March 2019, when Nvidia acquired Mellanox Technologies for US$6.9 billion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Clifford |first=Tyler |date=2020-04-28 |title=Nvidia completes 'homerun deal' after closing $7 billion acquisition of Mellanox |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/27/nvidia-ceo-calls-mellanox-acquisition-a-homerun-deal.html |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=CNBC |language=en}}</ref> The first Nvidia produced BlueField cards, named BlueField-2, were shipped for review shortly after their announcement at [[VMworld]] 2019, and were officially launched at [[Nvidia GTC|GTC]] 2020.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=servethehome |date=2020-10-05 |title=NVIDIA BlueField-2 and BlueField-2X DPU Offerings Launched |url=https://www.servethehome.com/nvidia-bluefield-2-and-bluefield-2x-dpu-offerings-launched/ |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=ServeTheHome |language=en-US}}</ref> Also launched at GTC 2020 was the Nvidia BlueField-2X, an Nvidia BlueField card with an [[Ampere (microarchitecture)|Ampere]] generation [[graphics processing unit|graphics processing unit (GPU)]] integrated onto the same card.<ref name=":0" /> BlueField-3 and BlueField-4 DPUs were first announced at GTC 2021, with the tentative launch dates for these cards being 2022 and 2024 respectively.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-unveils-bluefield-3-and-bluefield-4-dpus |title=Nvidia Reveals BlueField-3, BlueField-4 DPUs: 400-800 Gbps, 22-64B Transistors |date=2021-04-12 |work=[[Tom's Hardware]] |last=Shilov |first=Anton}}</ref>
Nvidia BlueField cards are targeted for use in [[Data center|datacenters]] and [[Supercomputer|high performance computing]], where [[Latency (engineering)|latency]] and [[Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] are important for efficient computation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/Data-Center/documents/datasheet-nvidia-bluefield-2-dpu.pdf|title=NVIDIA BLUEFIELD-2 DPU - Data Center Infrastructure on a Chip|website=Nvidia}}</ref>
BlueField cards differ from [[network interface controller]]s in their offloading of functions that would normally be reserved for the [[CPU]], and the presence of [[CPU core]]s (typically [[ARM architecture family|ARM]] or [[MIPS architecture|MIPS]] based) and memory support (typically [[DDR4 SDRAM|DDR4]], though Bluefield-3's release brought support for more exotic memory types such as [[High Bandwidth Memory|HBM]] and [[DDR5 SDRAM|DDR5]]). BlueField cards also run an [[operating system]] completely independent from the host system: this is designed to reduce software overhead, as each DPU can function independently of one another and the head unit.<ref>{{Cite web |last=servethehome |date=2021-05-29 |title=DPU vs SmartNIC and the STH NIC Continuum Framework |url=https://www.servethehome.com/dpu-vs-smartnic-sth-nic-continuum-framework-for-discussing-nic-types/ |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=ServeTheHome |language=en-US}}</ref> This also means that Bluefield cards are capable of allowing [[remote management]] of systems that may not typically support it. Bluefield cards can also configure their [[PCI Express|PCIe]] bus to function as a host, rather than a device, which lets Bluefield cards connect over a PCIe bridge to another card, such as a compute accelerator, to provide completely network-based, high [[Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] control of a GPU.<ref>{{Cite web |last=servethehome |date=2021-07-11 |title=CPU-GPU-NIC PCIe Card Realized with NVIDIA BlueField-2 A100 |url=https://www.servethehome.com/cpu-gpu-nic-pcie-card-realized-with-nvidia-bluefield-2-a100/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=ServeTheHome |language=en-US}}</ref>
The Bluefield X cards are DPU-GPU hybrid cards with a 100 class [[Nvidia tesla|Nvidia datacenter GPU]] integrated on the same PCB as the Bluefield DPU. These cards are intended for high power GPU clusters to allow high bandwidth communication without needing to cross the PCIe bus and create an unnecessary load on the CPU where performance may be better allocated to other types of processing. The increase in total external connectivity available to a system in this configuration allows for datasets to be utilized across multiple nodes when they may be too large for any single system to hold in memory.{{cn|date=April 2025}}
== Models == {| class="wikitable" |+ !Model !Announcement date !Release date !Networking port options !Bandwidth capacity !Cores !Core type !PCIe generation !Memory capacity !Memory type !GPU accelerator ![[SPECint]](2k17-rate)<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Mellor |first=Chris |date=2021-04-12 |title=Nvidia unveils BlueField 3 DPU. It's much faster |url=https://blocksandfiles.com/2021/04/12/nvidia-bluefield-3-smartnic/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=Blocks and Files |language=en-US}}</ref> !TOPS<ref name=":1" /> |- |BlueField-2 | rowspan="2" |October 5, 2020 |Q2 2021 | rowspan="2" |Dual QSFP56 10/25/50/100 Gb Single QSFP56 200 Gb | rowspan="2" |200Gbit/s | rowspan="2" |8 | rowspan="2" |ARM A72 | rowspan="2" |4.0 | rowspan="2" |16/32 GB | rowspan="2" |DDR4 |N/A | rowspan="2" |9 |0.7 |- |BlueField-2X |Q4 2021 |Nvidia A100 |60 |- |BlueField-3 | rowspan="2" |April 12, 2021 |Q1 2022 | rowspan="2" |Quad/Dual/Single QSFP56 | rowspan="2" |400Gbit/s | rowspan="2" |16 | rowspan="2" |ARM A78 | rowspan="2" |5.0 | rowspan="2" |64 GB | rowspan="2" |DDR5 |N/A | rowspan="2" |42 |1.5 |- |BlueField-3X |N/A |Nvidia A100 |75 |- |BlueField-4 |2024 |Q4 2025 |OSFP112 |800Gbit/s |64 |ARM Neoverse V2 |6.0 |128 GB |DDR5 |N/A |TBD |TBD |}
== H100 CNX & A100 EGX == The H100 CNX and the A100 EGX are NIC/GPU hybrid cards and, while visually similar to a Bluefield-X card, are completely distinct, and do not have the Bluefield [[system on a chip]] integration. The cards are instead equipped with a generic ConnectX [[network interface controller]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=servethehome |date=2020-05-14 |title=NVIDIA EGX A100 Launched Tesla Plus Mellanox Vision |url=https://www.servethehome.com/nvidia-egx-a100-launched-tesla-plus-mellanox-vision/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=ServeTheHome |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=NVIDIA H100 CNX |url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/h100cnx/ |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=NVIDIA |language=en-us}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
[[Category:Nvidia hardware|BlueField]] [[Category:Networking hardware]]