macOS 26.2 adds Infiniband over Thunderbolt support

Been away, just catching up.

I suspect that the next Studio, or perhaps the one after that, will have an option for much faster Ethernet using OSFP or some QSFP variant. 200gbps, probably, but 400 and 100 aren't all that unlikely, and 800 isn't impossible. Look at the nVidia DGX Spark - a significant part of its cost is the inclusion of the ConnectX-7.

I wouldn't have expected it, but it's not impossible that Apple is using nVidia's chip for that purpose right now in their PCC servers. That would explain mellanox drivers, and suggest that we might see that in future Studios. And Pros, if they ever make another, sigh.

However unless you took apart the libmlx5 and can see symbols (or text) confirming that it's mellanox-related, I wouldn't yet take that as proven.
 
NotEntirelyConfused said:
Been away, just catching up.

I suspect that the next Studio, or perhaps the one after that, will have an option for much faster Ethernet using OSFP or some QSFP variant. 200gbps, probably, but 400 and 100 aren't all that unlikely, and 800 isn't impossible. Look at the nVidia DGX Spark - a significant part of its cost is the inclusion of the ConnectX-7.

I wouldn't have expected it, but it's not impossible that Apple is using nVidia's chip for that purpose right now in their PCC servers. That would explain mellanox drivers, and suggest that we might see that in future Studios. And Pros, if they ever make another, sigh.

However unless you took apart the libmlx5 and can see symbols (or text) confirming that it's mellanox-related, I wouldn't yet take that as proven.
Click to expand...
1) I highly doubt Apple is going to add in what is basically very enterprise ports into this consumer product. It's just not something Apple chases. They are focused on Thunderbolt and for good reason

2) PCC has already been confirmed to be fully Apple silicon, Internal transformer models are trained via Google TPU hardware, primarily, with some NVIDIA.
 
NotEntirelyConfused said:
I wouldn't have expected it, but it's not impossible that Apple is using nVidia's chip for that purpose right now in their PCC servers. That would explain mellanox drivers, and suggest that we might see that in future Studios. And Pros, if they ever make another, sigh.
Click to expand...

They will most likely use Mellanox switches in their data servers. Thunderbolt is cute, but not really suitable for building a large-scale cloud system.
 
leman said:
They will most likely use Mellanox switches in their data servers. Thunderbolt is cute, but not really suitable for building a large-scale cloud system.
Click to expand...
Did you mean to reply to me? The comment you replied to didn't mention Thunderbolt, but I did.

To be clear, I wasn't claiming Apple was connecting servers via Thunderbolt....
 
Last edited:
RockRock8 said:
1) I highly doubt Apple is going to add in what is basically very enterprise ports into this consumer product. It's just not something Apple chases. They are focused on Thunderbolt and for good reason

2) PCC has already been confirmed to be fully Apple silicon, Internal transformer models are trained via Google TPU hardware, primarily, with some NVIDIA.
Click to expand...

RockRock8 said:
Did you mean to reply to me? The comment you replied to didn't mention Thunderbolt, but I did.

To be clear, I wasn't claiming Apple was connecting servers via Thunderbolt....
Click to expand...
Your point #2 above suggests you are confused.

I was not talking at all about nVidia's GPUs. I was talking about the ConnectX series, now made by nVidia, which comes from their Mellanox acquisition.

As for your point #1: Apple faces a stark choice, because Thunderbolt simply doesn't have the bandwidth for connecting hosts as fast as you want to for scaling out AI (much less scaling up). TB is great compared to 10GbE, but not to 100, much less the 200 used in the DGX Spark, or the 400/800 used in bigger servers.

Putting that speed Ethernet in the Studio would be utterly impractical for the base model. But there's an easy solution. After all, they already make 10GbE optional. It would not be a stretch to make an OSFP or QSFP port with a really fast Ethernet chip behind it an option as well. And if they are supporting a mellanox chip already for their PCC servers, it's reasonable to use those for Studios as well, though there are also several other options. Perhaps Tim Cook has decided it's time to bury the hatchet?

Coming back to your second comment... If you think they're not connecting them with TB, then what do you think they're using? And why wouldn't they consider that tech for the studio, at least as an option?
 
Back
Top