By Cyber Era NG Special Correspondent
A leading provider of Programmable Network Interface Cards (NICs) used in datacenters, Napatech™ , has announced it has entered into a material agreement for a groundbreaking high-volume design win with a leading provider of Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing platforms used for inferencing in datacenters.
AI inferencing is pivotal because it represents the process of applying trained machine learning models to make predictions, decisions, or draw insights from data. It’s where the magic of AI becomes practical and beneficial in real-world applications.
Napatech’s solution targets one of the most transformative use cases for programmable NICs, known as AI infrastructure. AI inferencing is changing the way data centers are built, including a massive increase in the number of servers deployed to meet the insatiable demand for new use cases. AI Infrastructure is the method by which the new servers are connected to scale the AI inferencing, forming a massive neural network by which the AI inferencing processors communicate. AI Infrastructure requires a previously unseen combination of throughput and latency, with programmability to rapidly adapt to evolving technology standards. This solution is repeatable for an entire emerging industry of AI ASIC vendors who are building optimized solutions for an indescribable number of new use-cases for AI.
The agreement includes a number of material terms, including: financial commitments to fund development of new software requirements for their specific use case; committed unit purchases for their development in 2025 through early 2026; multi-year volume forecast projections; and a five-year minimum product continuity of supply commitment. The design win should exceed US$1.2M in 2025 and begin its initial ramp during 2026, with the potential to exceed US$15M per year once in peak production.
“The way AI compute nodes are connected will have profound implications on efficiency, cost, and performance,” said Chief Executive at Napatech Lars Boilesen. “At a time when datacenter capex is exploding, Napatech is excited to be in the eye of the storm.” He continued, “Our Programmable NICs are proving to be an ideal solution in this space. The design win is a validation of our strategy to invest in the top use cases that allow our proven products to transition into the highest-growth areas for Programmable NICs.”
Napatech’s solution is powered by its new N3070X programmable NIC, packed with the latest technology from Intel-Altera. Disclosed in April 2024 and specified along with Intel-Altera and a tier-1 global server manufacture, the product is available today in early access and is under evaluation by lead users. Napatech’s programmable NICs are purpose-built to improve the performance of leading datacenter applications including AI infrastructure, cyber security, financial services, cloud services, big data analytic, and 5G infrastructure.
At this event, Napatech will showcase the latest SmartNIC and IPU technology solutions.
