# Nvidia BlueField > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Nvidia_BlueField > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Nvidia_BlueField.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_BlueField > Source revision: 1329278950 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Data processing hardware by Nvidia **Nvidia BlueField** is a line of [data processing units](/source/Data_processing_unit) (DPUs) designed and produced by [Nvidia](/source/Nvidia). Initially developed by [Mellanox Technologies](/source/Mellanox_Technologies), the BlueField IP was acquired by Nvidia in March 2019, when Nvidia acquired Mellanox Technologies for US$6.9 billion.[1] The first Nvidia produced BlueField cards, named BlueField-2, were shipped for review shortly after their announcement at [VMworld](/source/VMworld) 2019, and were officially launched at [GTC](/source/Nvidia_GTC) 2020.[2] Also launched at GTC 2020 was the Nvidia BlueField-2X, an Nvidia BlueField card with an [Ampere](/source/Ampere_(microarchitecture)) generation [graphics processing unit (GPU)](/source/Graphics_processing_unit) integrated onto the same card.[2] 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.[3] Nvidia BlueField cards are targeted for use in [datacenters](/source/Data_center) and [high performance computing](/source/Supercomputer), where [latency](/source/Latency_(engineering)) and [bandwidth](/source/Bandwidth_(computing)) are important for efficient computation.[4] BlueField cards differ from [network interface controllers](/source/Network_interface_controller) in their offloading of functions that would normally be reserved for the [CPU](/source/CPU), and the presence of [CPU cores](/source/CPU_core) (typically [ARM](/source/ARM_architecture_family) or [MIPS](/source/MIPS_architecture) based) and memory support (typically [DDR4](/source/DDR4_SDRAM), though Bluefield-3's release brought support for more exotic memory types such as [HBM](/source/High_Bandwidth_Memory) and [DDR5](/source/DDR5_SDRAM)). BlueField cards also run an [operating system](/source/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.[5] This also means that Bluefield cards are capable of allowing [remote management](/source/Remote_management) of systems that may not typically support it. Bluefield cards can also configure their [PCIe](/source/PCI_Express) 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](/source/Bandwidth_(computing)) control of a GPU.[6] The Bluefield X cards are DPU-GPU hybrid cards with a 100 class [Nvidia datacenter GPU](/source/Nvidia_tesla) 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.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] ## Models Model Announcement date Release date Networking port options Bandwidth capacity Cores Core type PCIe generation Memory capacity Memory type GPU accelerator SPECint(2k17-rate)[7] TOPS[7] BlueField-2 October 5, 2020 Q2 2021 Dual QSFP56 10/25/50/100 Gb Single QSFP56 200 Gb 200Gbit/s 8 ARM A72 4.0 16/32 GB DDR4 N/A 9 0.7 BlueField-2X Q4 2021 Nvidia A100 60 BlueField-3 April 12, 2021 Q1 2022 Quad/Dual/Single QSFP56 400Gbit/s 16 ARM A78 5.0 64 GB DDR5 N/A 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](/source/System_on_a_chip) integration. The cards are instead equipped with a generic ConnectX [network interface controller](/source/Network_interface_controller).[8][9] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Clifford, Tyler (2020-04-28). ["Nvidia completes 'homerun deal' after closing $7 billion acquisition of Mellanox"](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/27/nvidia-ceo-calls-mellanox-acquisition-a-homerun-deal.html). *CNBC*. Retrieved 2022-03-28. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_2-1) servethehome (2020-10-05). ["NVIDIA BlueField-2 and BlueField-2X DPU Offerings Launched"](https://www.servethehome.com/nvidia-bluefield-2-and-bluefield-2x-dpu-offerings-launched/). *ServeTheHome*. Retrieved 2022-03-28. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Shilov, Anton (2021-04-12). ["Nvidia Reveals BlueField-3, BlueField-4 DPUs: 400-800 Gbps, 22-64B Transistors"](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-unveils-bluefield-3-and-bluefield-4-dpus). *[Tom's Hardware](/source/Tom's_Hardware)*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["NVIDIA BLUEFIELD-2 DPU - Data Center Infrastructure on a Chip"](https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/Data-Center/documents/datasheet-nvidia-bluefield-2-dpu.pdf) (PDF). *Nvidia*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** servethehome (2021-05-29). ["DPU vs SmartNIC and the STH NIC Continuum Framework"](https://www.servethehome.com/dpu-vs-smartnic-sth-nic-continuum-framework-for-discussing-nic-types/). *ServeTheHome*. Retrieved 2022-03-29. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** servethehome (2021-07-11). ["CPU-GPU-NIC PCIe Card Realized with NVIDIA BlueField-2 A100"](https://www.servethehome.com/cpu-gpu-nic-pcie-card-realized-with-nvidia-bluefield-2-a100/). *ServeTheHome*. Retrieved 2022-04-05. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_7-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_7-1) Mellor, Chris (2021-04-12). ["Nvidia unveils BlueField 3 DPU. It's much faster"](https://blocksandfiles.com/2021/04/12/nvidia-bluefield-3-smartnic/). *Blocks and Files*. Retrieved 2023-06-28. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** servethehome (2020-05-14). ["NVIDIA EGX A100 Launched Tesla Plus Mellanox Vision"](https://www.servethehome.com/nvidia-egx-a100-launched-tesla-plus-mellanox-vision/). *ServeTheHome*. Retrieved 2022-04-05. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** ["NVIDIA H100 CNX"](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/h100cnx/). *NVIDIA*. Retrieved 2022-03-29. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Nvidia BlueField](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_BlueField) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_BlueField?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.