Microsoft Dives into DPU with Azure Boost: Data Processing Unit Market Gets Further Validation as Microsoft Seeks to Split the Data Center
- Microsoft introduces Azure Boost DPU to handle data-centric workloads
- Specific to Azure: integrates compute, storage, and networking
- Custom hardware software design increases efficiency and reduces power requirements
Traditional CPUs excel at common tasks but struggle to manage multiplexed flows of millions of network connections. While GPUs are effective for AI computation, they are also not suitable for these specialized workloads. To address this, the Data Processing Unit (DPU) was developed as a new class of silicon to complement CPUs and GPUs in large-scale data centers and handle large processes efficiently.
At the recent Ignite event, Microsoft announced the Azure Boost DPU, a new SoC built specifically for Azure.
The company’s new DPU is designed to address challenges in cloud and AI environments, improve security, and efficiently manage large-scale workloads across networks. Its introduction marks an important step toward the unification of the data center, a growing trend that separates compute, storage, and networking functions into specialized hardware to improve efficiency and scalability.
Co-design of hardware and software
“As part of our comprehensive approach to optimizing Azure infrastructure, we work hard to remove infrastructure limitations that hinder the delivery of customer value – whether they are performance bottlenecks or resource constraints,” said Pradeep Sindhu, Corporate VP Silicon at Microsoft.
“We innovate at every layer of the stack, from silicon to systems and software, to improve the security, efficiency, performance, flexibility and scale of our infrastructure.”
Azure Boost DPU integrates high-speed Ethernet, PCIe interfaces, storage engines, and security features into a single, fully programmable SoC. The custom hardware-software co-design delivers higher performance and lower power consumption, allowing the DPU to handle cloud storage workloads with three times the power and four times the performance of traditional CPUs, Microsoft said.
By addressing key bottlenecks, Azure Boost DPU can meet the evolving demands of cloud and AI applications while improving security through its tightly integrated data protection and cryptography engines.
“Azure Boost DPU is the latest addition to our family of infrastructure improvements through hardware innovation. As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, we remain committed to delivering innovations that make our infrastructure more capable, efficient and scalable to meet the evolving needs of our customers,” said Sindhu.
