Altera® FPGA Acceleration Platforms and SoMs

The portfolio of Altera and Altera Partner FPGA-acceleration platforms includes AI NICs, SmartNICs, Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs), and System on Modules (SoMs). These acceleration boards and platform designs are tailored for use in telecommunications, cloud service providers, and various enterprise data center environments. They are continuously undergoing qualification and are being distributed by leading original equipment manufacturer (OEM) service providers.

Altera® FPGA Acceleration Platforms and SoMs

See why Microsoft chose Altera FPGAs to accelerate their next generation cloud infrastructure

Platforms Description Target Applications

AI NICs

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  • Programmable Artificial Intelligence Network Interface card
  • Early adopter of Ultra Ethernet Transport (UET)
  • Delivers deterministic, low latency, high bandwidth networking 
  • Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Connectivity
  • Backend Storage
  • High-Performance Computing 

SmartNICs

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  • Programmable network adapter card with programmable accelerators and Ethernet connectivity.
  • Accelerate infrastructure applications running on the host CPU.
  • Internet Protocol Security (IPSec)
  • vFirewall
  • Segment Routing Version (SRv6)
  • Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) 
  • Professional Media over Managed IP Networks
  • 4G/5G Virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRAN)

IPU Platforms and Adapters

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  • Advanced networking device with hardened accelerators and Ethernet connectivity.
  • Accelerates and manages infrastructure functions using tightly coupled, dedicated, programmable cores.
  • Offers full infrastructure offload and provides an extra layer of security by serving as a control point of the host for running infrastructure applications.

Cloud infrastructure workloads such as:

  • Open vSwitch
  • NVMe over Fabrics
  • Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA over Converged Ethernet v2 (RoCEv2)

FPGA-Based SoMs

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  • Highly integrated, small form-factor circuit board containing CPU, programmable logic, memory, I/O, and power management.
  • Production-qualified for rapid deployment at scale.
  • Most include Linux BSP, FPGA reference design, and are available with carrier board for prototyping and development.
  • Factory automation, robotics, AI, machine vision.
  • Networking and communication.
  • Test and measurement.
  • Broadcast and surveillance.
  • Radar, software defined radio, cyber security.
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FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

An AI NIC, or Artificial Intelligence Network Interface Card, is a programmable network interface card specifically designed to provide deterministic, low latency, high bandwidth networking to interconnect AI clusters. These core capabilities enable the compute accelerators, typically GPUs, to be used most efficiently by minimizing their idle times.

A SmartNIC is a programmable network adapter card with programmable accelerators and Ethernet connectivity that can accelerate infrastructure applications running on the host.

An IPU is an advanced networking device with hardened accelerators and Ethernet connectivity that accelerates and manages infrastructure functions using tightly coupled, dedicated, programmable cores. An IPU offers full infrastructure offload and provides an extra layer of security by serving as a control point of the host for running infrastructure applications.

Both AI NICs and SmartNICs are programmable networking devices. The AI NICs target applications that require high bandwidth, low latency, and deterministic capabilities. SmartNICs are typically used when accelerating the data plane, for example, Open vSwitch (OvS).

IPUs include an x86-based SoC that enables the entire networking and storage stacks to be offloaded from the host processor. They are typically used in multi-tenant environments such as Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), enabling Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)/Platform as a Service (PaaS). By disaggregating both the control and data planes from the host, the service provider gains an extra layer of security and control, enforced in hardware by the IPU. 

System on Modules (SoMs) are small, highly integrated single-board computers that include DRAM, flash memory, power management, common interface controllers, and board support package (BSP) software. SoMs help you create a fully customized embedded design without starting from scratch. It is a turn-key hardware solution to address the challenges inherent in developing a product and to meet competitive market demands. Depending on the application, there are many SoM options to choose from. SoMs are available with a diverse range of interconnect options that can be used with a custom, cost-reduced, and application specific baseboard. SoMs are a great vehicle to take advantage of the versatility of an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).

 

Browse Altera® FPGA-Based SoMs

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