SmartNIC

Created by Simon Sharwood //

Tue 22 Feb 2022

Data processing unit

Infrastructure processing unit

The SmartNIC revolution fell flat, but AI might change that

Analysis The idea of handing off networking chores to DPUs persists even if it hasn't caught on beyond hyperscalers

Datacenter Networking Nexus26 Jun 2025 | 4

VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor in an utterly obscure way

Home labs and bare bones test rigs matter so Broadcom's back in the game

Virtualization14 Apr 2025 | 42

Yup, AMD's Elba and Giglio definitely sound like they work corporate security

Which is why Cisco is adding these Pensando DPUs to more switches

Networks11 Feb 2025 | 3

Nvidia intros the 'SuperNIC' – it's like a SmartNIC, DPU or IPU, but more super

If you're doing AI but would rather not do InfiniBand, this NIC is for you

Networks21 Nov 2023 | 6

Microsoft adds FPGA-powered network accelerator to Azure

'Azure Boost' vastly speeds cloudy server IOPS and is coming to all new instance types

Off-Prem21 Nov 2023 | 6

Dell allows DPUs to be retrofitted to older PowerEdge servers

As VMware emits a significant update to the vSphere suite that wrangles the accelerators

Systems25 Sep 2023 | 2

BROADER TOPICS

Network

The future of the cloud sure looks like it'll be paved in even more custom silicon

You're probably using cloud providers bespoke chips already and not even know it

Off-Prem12 Sep 2023 | 6

SmartNICs haven't soared so VMware will allow retrofits in old servers

Explore vSphere to also add support for PCIe cards packed with CXL RAM to give boxes a boost, faster vCenter upgrades, and more

Virtualization24 Aug 2023 | 10

Google Cloud upgrades with next-gen accelerator that embiggens its VMs

Homebrew Infrastructure Processing Unit virtualizes networks and storage to make Sapphire Rapids Xeons sing

Off-Prem23 May 2023 | 1

AMD reveals Azure is offering its SmartNICs as-a-service

Still smiling despite Q1 PC chip sales slumping 65 points and flat server sales

On-Prem03 May 2023 |

Chinese web giant Baidu backs RISC-V for the datacenter

Gee, why could that be? Nah, not that. AI contender might just want better SmartNICs

On-Prem27 Mar 2023 | 6

Watchdog: Broadcom buy of VMware may be bad for competition

Server price hikes, rival hardware makers locked out ... haven't we been warning that for a while?

Virtualization22 Mar 2023 | 10

Is this the year 100GE NICs go mainstream? If you're into AI, it might be

Networks10 Mar 2023 | 5

Microsoft boosts Azure networking, storage with composable infra grab

Slurps ‘Fungible’, a manufacturer of DPUs and fabrics that will join Redmond’s engineering gang

Off-Prem10 Jan 2023 | 2

VMware has clouded the SmartNIC market, not created it

Analysis Virtzilla has built itself an island. Important players aren't welcome to visit and might go elsewhere

Virtualization11 Sep 2022 | 5

What are Nvidia and AMD doing getting involved with SmartNICs and VMware?

VMware Explore A gentle primer on these chip giants' accelerators – and your essential guide to the conference so far

Networks31 Aug 2022 | 1

VMware reckons 20% of server cores can come back to work thanks to vSphere 8 and SmartNICs

VMware Explore Re-composes automation and management tools as ‘Aria’, reduces cloud hardware requirements, tries to reinvent security ... again

Virtualization30 Aug 2022 | 1

AMD smartNICs to meld ASICs, FPGAs, Arm cores

Hot Chips Why choose one when you can use them all?

Networks27 Aug 2022 | 7

SmartNICs to make up 38% of network market by 2026

Dell'Oro sees traditional NICs being displaced for most hyperscale cloud infrastructure

Networks11 Aug 2022 | 5

Intel’s smartNICs probably aren’t for you (yet) says Intel

'Right now, the focus is on the super-high volume'

Networks25 Jul 2022 | 6

TikTok's chief security officer steps aside, thanks to Oracle move

Takes up advisory role that might leave time to play with parent company's homebrew cloudy SmartNICs

CSO18 Jul 2022 |

Linux Foundation thinks it can get you interested in smartNICs

Step one: Make them easier to program

Networks21 Jun 2022 | 8

Alibaba Cloud challenges AWS with its own custom smartNIC

Who'll board the custom silicon bandwagon next?

Networks14 Jun 2022 |

Nvidia promises annual updates across CPU, GPU, DPU lines

Computex Arm one year, x86 the next, and always faster than a certain chip shop that still can't ship even one standalone GPU

Systems24 May 2022 | 1

SmartNICs power the cloud, are enterprise datacenters next?

High pricing, lack of software make smartNICs a tough sell, despite offload potential

Networks20 May 2022 | 4

Those NitroTPMs Amazon teased now really are coming to AWS EC2

Yes, give those smartNICs something to do

PaaS + IaaS13 May 2022 | 1

Intel sticks with FPGAs and ASICs for next-gen IPUs

Intel Vision Chip giant sticking with multi-architecture ASIC/FPGA approach through 2024

Systems10 May 2022 | 1

VMware says server sprawl is back, and SmartNICs are the solution

More details emerge about 'Project Monterey' and its role driving infrastructure workloads into hybrid clouds

Virtualization27 Apr 2022 | 3

AMD to acquire SmartNIC and networking firm Pensando for $1.9 billion

Strengthens SDN smarts for hyperscalers, small clouds, and maybe 5G, gives Xilinx some work too

Networks04 Apr 2022 | 5

Arm sees support path to heterogeneous compute

Toward making software development 'frictionless' over multiple processors, accelerators

Software29 Mar 2022 |

Intel axes older FPGA cards, moves development into hands of customers

If you want your own custom SmartNIC, knock yourself out, says x86 giant

Networks16 Mar 2022 | 5

SDN contender Pluribus ports network OS to Nvidia SmartNICs

Here’s another reason to do hyperscale thing of offloading network functions to an accelerator

Networks16 Mar 2022 | 1

Marvell, Dell team on SmartNIC for 5G servers

HPE and Qualcomm did likewise last week, because vanilla x86 isn’t going to cut it on the edge

Networks22 Feb 2022 | 2

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