System requirements

To achieve efficient performance of 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps or 400 Gbps with DYNANIC SmartNIC solutions, the host system must meet certain minimum specifications. These requirements ensure that data transfers between the FPGA acceleration card and the host server are not unnecessarily throttled by CPU, memory, or PCIe bandwidth limitations. The minimum requirements specified below are sufficient for one-way transfers with basic packet processing at given data rate, so unfiltered software-based ingress only or egress handling only.

Minimum requirements overview

Component	100Gbps	200Gbps	400Gbps
CPU	8 cores @ 2.4 GHz	16 cores @ 2.4 GHz	32 cores @ 2.4 Ghz
Host memory	2 channel controller, DDR4 @ 3200 MT/s	4-channel controller, DDR4 @ 3200 MT/s	4-channel controller, DDR4 HF @ 4800 MT/s or DDR5 @ 5600 MT/s
PCIe bus	gen3, x16 slot	gen4, x16 slot	gen5, x16 slot x8x8 bifurcation
Form factor	Card model specific	Card model specific	Card model specific
Power & cooling	Card model specific	Card model specific	Card model specific

Other considerations

1. CPU requirements
   • Single-socket architectures are recommended to sustain throughput at high packet rates.
   • For multi-socket architectures, NUMA-aware allocation and operation must be ensured.
   • Use CPUs with only performance cores, efficiency cores can decrease overall throughput.
   • Hyper-threading or Simultaneous Multi-Threading should be disabled in most use-cases.
2. Memory (RAM) requirements
   • High-throughput memory access is critical for large flow handling and buffering at line rate.
   • Memory size is not important for the transfers alone, the size is determined by use-case.
   • Populate memory slots on the motherboard to engage as many memory channels as possible.
   • Use the same memory stick model in all of the slots to prevent their frequency throttling.
   • On some CPU/motherboard combinations, two sticks per channel can reduce the frequency.
3. PCIe bus requirements
   • Dedicated PCIe lanes are essential to prevent I/O bottlenecks at peak load.
   • A physical x16 slot with support of all 16 lanes is needed, not 8 lanes in x16 slot.
   • For 400 Gbps PCIe gen5 cards, support of bifurcation x8x8 in x16 slot must be available.
   • PCIe generations are backward/forward compatible, higher PCIe generations can be used on motherboard.
4. Server form factor, cooling & power
   • The exact chassis dimensions, power supply capacity, and cooling needs depend on the chosen FPGA acceleration card model.
   • Card dimension options from half-length half-height single-wide all the way to 3/4 length, full-height double-wide are available.
   • Cooling options include passive and active heat sink variants.
   • The exact specification is defined by the card manufacturer and is available in their datasheet. Link to the manufacturer’s site is always available at the end of DYNANIC solution briefs.
   • Note that most of the card models require an additional PCIe power cable (similar to GPUs).

Summary

DYNANIC SmartNIC solutions can deliver network data at 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps, and 400 Gbps throughput when deployed in host systems that meet the above requirements. Final platform sizing must always be validated against the specific FPGA card vendor specifications.