What Is a DPU and Why It’s the Next Big Chip for Data Centers

DPU (Data Processing Unit) is the third major chip for data centers after CPU and GPU. It provides virtualization capabilities for network, storage, security, and management, acting as a dedicated processor for data‑center infrastructure.

By centering on data, DPU builds an agile, flexible, and highly efficient compute foundation with minimal overhead, strong performance, extreme flexibility, and robust security, supporting the diverse workload demands of China Mobile’s compute network.

In the DPU bare‑metal server technology field, China Mobile launched the ODCC project "Bare‑Metal Server Technical Specification" which proposes four unifications aimed at achieving hardware decoupling between DPU and server equipment, guiding early industry‑specific designs, and overcoming bottlenecks in large‑scale technology deployment.

For detailed technical principles, performance, and application scenarios, see the following resources:

DPU技术原理、算力效率及应用场景解析 – http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzAxNzU3NjcxOA==∣=2650738675&idx=1&sn=fd07e2d9de3e3a67af4aaa2f4feaff62

主流DPU架构实现及技术对比 – http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzAxNzU3NjcxOA==∣=2650735998&idx=1&sn=395763ca1b2cd30f95eef80c4bd9584f

DPU性能基准：测评框架与测试流程介绍（2022） – http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzAxNzU3NjcxOA==∣=2650735934&idx=1&sn=314c084b0b5dce072d92b7dd77c70883

DPU全球格局，国内5家崛起（2023） – http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzAxNzU3NjcxOA==∣=2650738767&idx=1&sn=a5837843f4f03f9528a3f8f5faf6ab11

Downloadable technical documents include:

DPU硬件标准化的思考与探索（2023）

云计算通用可编程DPU发展白皮书（2023）

DPU发展分析报告（2022）

专用数据处理器 (DPU)技术白皮书

These resources provide comprehensive insight into DPU architecture, benchmark methodologies, and the evolving global DPU landscape.