DPU · Data Processing Unit
A programmable NIC (e.g. BlueField) that offloads networking, storage and security from the host CPU.
Current numbers
$1,500Illustrative installed DPU price
800 Gb/sBlueField-4 DPU throughput (STX storage architecture), ~6x BlueField-3 compute; WEKA/VAST/DDN platforms
$270k → $256.4k per nodeHistorical H100 compute-node BOM before/after host and DPU optimization (SemiAnalysis, October 2024)