To support an NVMe over TCP acceleration solution on the U45N, AMD has worked with one of the leading network and storage solution partners, Mangoboost. The Mangoboost StorageBoost™ NVMe/TCP initiator (NTI) is an innovative solution designed to significantly enhance efficiency and performance in NVMe over TCP environments. Functioning as an initiator, NTI efficiently manages communication between host systems and remote storage devices.
The NTI achieves remarkable efficiency by offloading the entire NVMe/TCP protocol stack to AMD Alveo U45N SmartNICs or network accelerator cards, eliminating reliance on host CPU resources. This approach ensures full-duplex line-rate performance with a minimum CPU consumption.
Seamlessly integrating into initiator servers as a standard NVMe-PCIe device, NTI allows existing systems to use standard drivers without any software modifications, facilitating a smooth storage disaggregation adoption process. This is a critical requirement for most developers because it eliminates the need for special drivers.
The architecture of NTI is optimized for performance. The U45N's system-on-a-chip (SoC) handles less compute-intensive tasks like initialization and administrative command processing. For more performance demanding operations—like protocol conversion from NVMe-PCIe to NVMe-TCP and TCP packet processing—the FPGA takes over, equipped with highly optimized engines that drastically reduce CPU load.
On the target side, compatibility of NTIs with standard TCP/IP networks and Ethernet switches ensures seamless integration into existing storage infrastructures. This compatibility facilitates efficient utilization of storage disaggregation benefits, making it a versatile solution for diverse storage environments.
Additionally, NTI features a PCIe in-band communication channel, enabling host systems to manage network configurations and retrieve logs from the SoC. An integrated NVMe/TCP agent streamlines operations by automating initialization processes, thereby enhancing overall efficiency.