Intel unveiled the new Intel FPGA SmartNIC C5000X platform architecture and the new Silicom FPGA SmartNIC N5010 as well as growing adoption from customers of its SmartNIC solutions.
FPGA-based SmartNIC C5000X platform for cloud
The product announcements came after rival Nvidia revealed a new family of SmartNIC products it refers to as data processing units, or DPUs, setting the stage for a new battleground between the two semiconductor giants. Intel’s other rival, AMD, could also enter the SmartNIC market as AMD is rumored to be in talks of buying Xilinx, an important player in the FPGA and AI accelerator market.
These two new FPGA-based SmartNICs will deliver programmable infrastructure acceleration for efficiently moving data center traffic. It is based on the Intel Xeon-D processor and the Intel Stratix 10 FPGA, offering a hardware programmable data path. This new SmartNIC platform accelerates networking, storage, and security workloads from the server, freeing up processor resources and simplifying management of the data center infrastructure.
Silicom FPGA SmartNIC N5010 for networking
Intel is partnering with Silicom to deliver the Silicom FPGA SmartNIC N5010, the first hardware programmable 4x100G FPGA SmartNIC. The Silicom FPGA SmartNIC N5010 features an Intel Stratix 10 DX FPGA with integrated high bandwidth memory (HBM) and Intel Ethernet 800 series adapter.