The editor of Downcodes learned that Cisco recently released two data center equipment optimized for artificial intelligence models, aiming to help enterprises handle AI-related workloads more efficiently. The two products released this time are the UCS C885A M8 series server and AI POD large data center equipment. They both reflect Cisco's latest technological breakthroughs in the field of AI hardware and provide strong hardware support for enterprise-level AI applications. This move also marks an important step for Cisco in the AI market competition and further consolidates its leadership position in the data center field.
The first newly launched product line is the UCS C885A M8 series server. This server can support up to eight graphics processing units (GPUs), providing business users with powerful computing capabilities. Cisco offers three GPU options for the series, including the H100 and H200 from Nvidia Corp., as well as rival AMD's MI300X chip.
In addition, each graphics card in the UCS C885A M8 series is equipped with an independent network interface controller (NIC). These specialized chips can act as an intermediary between the server and the network. Cisco offers two Nvidia NIC options, ConnectX-7 and BlueField-3. The latter is an advanced solution called a "super NIC" that speeds up tasks such as the encryption of data traffic.
At the same time, Cisco is integrating BlueField-3 chips into its new servers, a data processing unit (DPU) also made by Nvidia that can improve the efficiency of managing attached storage and network infrastructure. Handling computing tasks not handled by dedicated chips is AMD's central processing unit (CPU), and users can choose from the latest fifth-generation CPU or the 2022 server processor series.
In addition to servers, Cisco also launched four large-scale data center devices called AI PODs. These AI PODs can incorporate up to 16 Nvidia graphics cards, networking equipment and other supporting components, and customers can choose to add storage from NetApp or Pure Storage. In terms of software, AI POD is equipped with a license for Nvidia AI Enterprise, which contains a series of prepackaged AI models and tools that companies can use to train their own neural networks. In addition, there is the Nvidia Morpheus framework for building AI-driven cybersecurity software, as well as the HPC-X toolkit to help optimize AI cluster networks and the Red Hat OpenShift platform to simplify the building and deployment of container applications.
"Enterprise customers are under pressure to deploy AI workloads, especially as intelligent workflows become a reality and AI begins to solve problems autonomously," said Jeetu Patel, chief product officer at Cisco. He added that Cisco's AI PODs and GPUs Server innovations improve security, compliance and processing capabilities for these workloads.
Cisco plans to start taking orders for the AI POD next month, and the UCS C885A M8 server series is available for order now and is expected to begin shipping before the end of the year.
All in all, the new products released by Cisco will greatly promote the development of enterprise-level AI applications and provide strong technical support for enterprise digital transformation. In the future, we look forward to seeing Cisco bring more innovations in the field of AI.