HighPoint has launched the Rocket 7638D PCIe 5.0 switch card, aimed at enabling Nvidia’s GPUDirect interconnection between GPUs and NVMe storage devices. The card is designed to accelerate AI training and inference workloads by bypassing the CPU and system memory when used with software that supports GPUDirect.
NVIDIA GPUs from the A100 onward support GPUDirect, a technology that allows direct data transfers between GPUs and other devices like SSDs or network interfaces. But enabling this capability requires a PCIe switch with peer-to-peer DMA support, which not all Gen5 switches provide. The Rocket 7638D addresses this by integrating Broadcom’s PEX 89048 switch.
The card offers 48 PCIe 5.0 lanes: 16 lanes for host connectivity, 16 lanes for external GPU boxes via a CDFP CopprLink connector, and 16 lanes for NVMe storage through MCIO 8i connectors. The latter supports up to 16 NVMe drives, allowing configurations with as much as 2PB of high-performance storage.
By enabling GPUDirect Storage workflows, the Rocket 7638D can deliver up to 64 GB/s of predictable bandwidth and reduced latency, making it particularly useful for large-scale AI training datasets. Its Broadcom switch includes an Arm-based CPU, allowing the card to be self-managed and compatible with both Arm and x86 platforms across major operating systems without requiring additional drivers.
For data center operators, the card also includes field-service features such as VPD tracking for hardware and firmware management and utilities to monitor health status and PCIe link performance, simplifying troubleshooting in multi-node deployments.
However, pricing details as well as shipping dates have not yet been disclosed.
