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> so the QEMU developers have added the virtio-net card (a PCI hardware specification, although no bare-metal hardware exists yet that actually implements it)

> so the QEMU developers have added the virtio-net card (a PCI hardware specification, although no bare-metal hardware exists yet that actually implements it) Things have changed since 2018. BlueField DPUs provide virtio network [1] and block [2] devices in the host PCI space. These can be passed through to VMs using vfio-pci in the host. 1. https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/display/bluefieldvirtionetv190/Virtio-net+Deployment https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/display/bluefieldvirtione... 2. https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/display/bluefield2snap380 https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/display/bluefield2snap380 Disclaimer: I work for NVIDIA, have used BlueField DPUs, but have not used the virtio feature.

freedomben 2y ago
Don't feel obligated to answer if you shouldn't, but how seriously is Nvidia taking Linux nowadays? With the rise of ML is linux being seen as an important support target?
- wtallis 2y ago
  NVIDIA's business these days is dominated by datacenter products that are almost exclusively used with Linux. This has had almost no effect on their approach toward dealing with/integrating with Linux. They did follow in AMD's footsteps and adopted a driver model with an open-source kernel component and closed-source userspace components.
moondev 2y ago
It can act as a PCIE root as well is that correct? I assume by connecting it to the input of a PCIE switch with other disks attached downstream, but would love to learn more and what PCIE switches are known to work.
- mgerdts 2y ago
  The models of BlueField DPUs I’ve worked with have no storage (aside from eMMC to boot the DPU) directly attached. They typically run SPDK, then SPDK block devices are presented to the host as NVMe namespaces or virtio-blk devices. If using NVMe-oF with RDMA, this can provide a zero copy IO path to remote storage. For NVMe, the devices may be presented to the host as PFs or VFs. I assume but do not know that it would be the same for virtio devices.

freedomben 2y ago

Don't feel obligated to answer if you shouldn't, but how seriously is Nvidia taking Linux nowadays? With the rise of ML is linux being seen as an important support target?

wtallis 2y ago
NVIDIA's business these days is dominated by datacenter products that are almost exclusively used with Linux. This has had almost no effect on their approach toward dealing with/integrating with Linux. They did follow in AMD's footsteps and adopted a driver model with an open-source kernel component and closed-source userspace components.

moondev 2y ago

It can act as a PCIE root as well is that correct? I assume by connecting it to the input of a PCIE switch with other disks attached downstream, but would love to learn more and what PCIE switches are known to work.

mgerdts 2y ago
The models of BlueField DPUs I’ve worked with have no storage (aside from eMMC to boot the DPU) directly attached. They typically run SPDK, then SPDK block devices are presented to the host as NVMe namespaces or virtio-blk devices. If using NVMe-oF with RDMA, this can provide a zero copy IO path to remote storage. For NVMe, the devices may be presented to the host as PFs or VFs. I assume but do not know that it would be the same for virtio devices.