Cisco wants to serve the AI trend in data centers with a new server model and concepts for its own AI cluster.
In front of around 17,000 participants at the Amsterdam edition of its in-house exhibition “Cisco Live”, network specialist Cisco presented a whole series of announcements relating to AI clusters on the podium. It began with the presentation of the new UCS C845A M8 rack server with four height units optimized for AI workloads, which the manufacturer intends to use for retrieval, augmented generation and inference tasks.
Flexible retrofitting
The server is based on Nvidia’s modular MGX reference design and can be flexibly equipped: it can be fitted with two, four, six or a maximum of eight Nvidia GPUs. This is intended for customers who cannot yet foresee how many GPUs they will really need for their AI projects at the outset and therefore want retrofitting options.
In addition to use for generative AI, the manufacturer also sees the server as being equipped for render farms or demanding VDI tasks. According to the data sheet, customers can currently choose between Nvidia’s GPU models H100 NVL, H200 NVL or L40S, but will be able to upgrade to future GPUs. Systems based on Nvidia’s H100/H200 NVL cards also come with a five-year license for the AI Enterprise open source software package curated by Nvidia.
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