Glossary

Canonical terms

BFBlesson ↗

BlueField boot image bundle (OS + firmware) pushed over rshim with bfb-install to provision the Arm side.

DOCAlesson ↗

NVIDIA's SDK and runtime framework for BlueField and ConnectX: drivers, libraries (Flow, DMA, RDMA, Comch, DPA…), services (HBN, DTS, DPF…) and tools, released quarterly with LTS lines.

DPU (Data Processing Unit)lesson ↗

A NIC with its own Arm CPU complex, memory and hardware accelerators that runs infrastructure software (networking, storage, security) independently of the host CPU. BlueField is NVIDIA's DPU line.

DPU mode / NIC mode / Zero-Trust modelesson ↗

BlueField operating modes. DPU mode: Arm owns the e-switch and the host sees a NIC through it. NIC mode: Arm is bypassed and the card behaves as a ConnectX. Zero-Trust: DPU mode with host privileges restricted via mlxprivhost.

Progress engine (PE)lesson ↗

DOCA Core object that drives task completion; the application polls it (or waits on its event handle) to run completion callbacks.

Representorlesson ↗

A netdev on the Arm side that stands for a host PF/VF/SF port in switchdev mode; traffic to and from the host port is steered through it.

rshimlesson ↗

The host-side management interface to the BlueField Arm system: boot stream, console, network over tmfifo (192.168.100.x), and misc control.

SuperNIClesson ↗

A BlueField-3 or ConnectX-8 variant positioned for east-west AI traffic: high bandwidth, RoCE and Spectrum-X features, fewer Arm cores, NIC mode by default.