GigaOm Sonar Report for Data Processing Units (DPUs)v3.0

1. Summary

A data processing unit (DPU) is a hardware accelerator, typically provided as a generic peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) card to be installed in commodity x86 or ARM servers. A main function of DPUs is to offload specialized compute tasks from the general-purpose system central processing unit (CPU), improving the overall performance and efficiency of the entire system. These compute tasks are data-centric, frequently focusing on network, security, and storage acceleration, compared to the graphical, floating-point, and matrix-math focus of GPUs and the tensor-math focus of tensor processing units (TPUs).

DPUs help organizations build IT infrastructure that is denser, faster, more efficient, and more cost effective than alternate approaches.

Figure 1 highlights the difference between traditional servers (left) and those with DPUs (right).

Figure 1. Comparison of Traditional and DPU-Based Server Configurations

DPUs are typically implemented using one or more of the following technologies:

• Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)
• Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)
• Low-power system-on-chip (SoC) designs, often using ARM-based designs
• Proprietary system-on-chip (SoC) designs

More sophisticated implementations use a combination of these technologies because each approach has different benefits and tradeoffs that align with different use cases. All four share some core characteristics, such as a high degree of internal parallelism that ensures consistent low latency and high throughput.

DPUs are programmable, an important feature that helps to distinguish them from other options. The relative ease with which DPUs can be modified after deployment helps them remain relevant to changing customer needs by supporting the latest protocols, algorithms, and features.

For an enterprise, it is important that the DPU integrates well with the operating system (OS), hypervisor, and other software components in the system. For more specialized workloads, such as high-performance computing (HPC) or artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), the availability of software development kits (SDKs) helps customers to customize the solution to better suit their specific needs.

DPUs accelerate a number of tasks, including network and storage functions related to data protection, encryption and security, data footprint optimization, and high availability. In some cases, DPUs provide additional functions such as key-value stores that can replace commonly used data stores. Some vendors also include programming libraries to support compute-intensive tasks that need high degrees of parallelism and throughput.

This GigaOm Sonar provides an overview of DPU vendors and their available offerings, equipping IT decision-makers with the information they need to select the best solution for their business and use case requirements.