The Ultra Ethernet specification (UEC) will be released only next year, and AMD has already introduced the first 400 GbE Pensando Pollara network card.
The Ultra Ethernet Consortium has postponed the release of the version 1.0 specification from Q3 2024 to Q1 next year, but AMD has announced the first card with this network interface for data centers — the Pensando Pollara 400.
The 400 GbE Ultra Ethernet card is based on a processor developed by AMD’s Pensando division. The network processor includes a programmable hardware pipeline, programmable RDMA transport, congestion control, and communication library acceleration. The device will become commercially available in the first half of 2025, immediately after the consortium officially publishes the UEC 1.0 specification.
The AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC is designed to optimize AI and HPC networks with several advanced features. One of its key features is intelligent multipathing, which dynamically distributes data packets across optimal routes, preventing network congestion and improving overall efficiency. The network adapter also includes path-aware congestion control, which reroutes data from temporarily congested paths to ensure continuous high-speed data flow.
Pollara 400 offers fast failover, rapid detection and failover of network failures to maintain uninterrupted GPU-GPU communication, ensuring reliable performance while maximizing the utilization of AI clusters and minimizing latency. These features promise to increase the scalability and reliability of the AI infrastructure, making it suitable for large-scale deployment.
Sources: AMD, Tom`s Hardware
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