At SC24, we saw the final form of a card that we have been seeing mock-ups of for some time. Apparently, the new NVIDIA ConnectX-8 is going to look a lot more like a GPU than a simple network card of years past.
This is the Next-Gen NVIDIA ConnectX-8 for 800Gbps Networking
At SC24 we saw the NVIDIA ConnectX-8 SuperNIC in the NVIDIA Quantum-X (InfiniBand) display.
Something you will immediately notice is that this looks more like a low-profile NVIDIA GPU than a traditional NIC where perhaps we might see a heatsink.
The card we saw is a single port 800Gbps card.
Something notable on the back was this connector. First, the NIC needs airflow so it is interesting there is a big connector on the back for a cable. Second, we asked if this was more of a multi-host cable connection, perhaps for connecting a second CPU or if it was a PCIe switch output. An 800Gbps NIC requires PCIe Gen6 x16 or two Gen5 x16 links to push sufficient bandwidth. Since we still have PCIe Gen5 CPUs in the market, that means this NIC is faster than a single CPU can realistically push. For generations we have seen NICs that offer a second PCIe x16 connection to a second CPU in order to provide one link to a system while giving both CPUs in that system direct network access. Also, in NVIDIA Grace platforms, the company has had to use its NICs as a way to provide auxiliary connectivity to some devices due to limitations of Grace CPUs. Using a NIC is a way to keep Broadcom products out of some NVIDIA Grace servers.
On the back, we get a backplate. Again, this feels very GPU and looks great.
In terms of the model, this is a NVIDIA C8180 made in September 2024.
The part number is the 900-9X8E-00EX-STQ.
Final Words
It was great seeing the new card at SC24. It also looks very different from current Broadcom based-offerings. We have shown the Broadcom 400GbE NICs many times that look much more like traditional NIC designs. Even the AMD Pensando Pollara 400 UltraEthernet RDMA NIC looks like it is from an older generation. It may seem small, but visually, NVIDIA networking is going to look great in servers compared to its Broadcom and AMD competition (perhaps Intel will get back in the NIC game at some point as well.) That made it a lot of fun to see.
That actually raises a good question: Why has Intel exited the networking market these days?
They were always known as the reliable stable solution with wide OS compatibility, and now they have just… given up. Or so it seems.
No consumer NICs past the i226v, no high end networking solutions for the 100+Gbps solutions either.
@James
Used to be known as reliable and stable is a good way to describe it. From anecdotal personal experiences the breaking point was locking out non-Intel SFP modules directly in firmware. Up to that point a simple driver parameter would allow 3rd party modules to work. From there I’ve had nothing but problems with their gear between X520, X540, X710 and E810.
The 2.5G desktop fiasco didn’t do any favors to their reputation and AFAIK still isn’t fully fixed despite i226V being a new hardware revision.
Good article, but i just have a question:
why is Intel leaving the networking market these days?