Replacement Nvidia ConnectX
Microsoft, like many others now, is heavily dependent on Nvidia accelerators for AI. But in another direction, Microsoft is looking to get rid of a similar dependency. The company is reportedly developing its own network adapter to avoid purchasing its ConnectX cards from Nvidia.
The project is far from complete, so details are scarce, but it is reported that the adapter will resemble the Nvidia ConnectX-7 with support for 400G Ethernet. However, given that the release is still far away, the final product may also support Ethernet 800 GbE.
The project is led by Pradeep Sindhu, who was previously a co-founder of Juniper Networks. Last year, Microsoft acquired Sindhu's startup Fungible and invited him to lead the new direction. The development of the adapter will supposedly take more than a year.