Marvell unveiled a custom 5nm network interface controller (NIC) ASIC designed in collaboration with Meta. The new solution, revealed at the 2024 OCP Global Summit, is tailored to meet Meta’s specific infrastructure needs. Marvell will also contribute the FBNIC board design to the Open Compute Project (OCP) community, making it available for wider industry use.
FBNIC combines a custom network controller co-designed by Marvell and Meta, along with Meta’s proprietary ASIC, firmware, and software. This design enhances network performance, improves operational efficiencies, and shortens the time required to address network and server issues. FBNIC also supports multiple Ethernet configurations, offering flexibility for large-scale data centers.
Key features of the FBNIC include support for 4x100GE, 2x100GE, and other Ethernet configurations, as well as a multi-host PCIe interface supporting four independent Gen5 x4 ports. It is compliant with OCP NIC 3.0, Version 1.2.0, ensuring seamless integration with OCP standards.
• Ethernet network interface: 4x100GE, 2x100GE, 4x50GE, 2x50GE, 4x25GE, 2x25GE
• SerDes support: Up to 56G PAM4 per lane
• Multi-host PCIe interface: Four independent Gen5 x4 ports
• Complete firmware control with access to hardware internals
• OCP NIC 3.0, Version 1.2.0 compliant
• To be contributed to the OCP community
Raghib Hussain, President of Products and Technologies at Marvell, commented, “It’s been exciting to partner with Meta on developing their custom FBNIC on our 5nm accelerated infrastructure silicon platform. We look forward to the OCP community leveraging the board design for future innovations.”
