Cisco UCS C880A M8 Rack Server Data Sheet
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The Cisco UCS C880A M8 accelerates advanced AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC) workloads in every data center with next-generation NVIDIA HGX B300 NVL8 GPUs.
UCS C880A M8 Front facing
UCS C880A M8 Rear Facing
Based on the NVIDIA HGX platform, the Cisco UCS C880A M8 Rack Server is a high-density, air-cooled rack server designed to power the most demanding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) workloads. It integrates the NVIDIA HGX platform with eight NVIDIA HGX B300 (SXM) GPUs and is powered by two Intel® Xeon® 6th Gen Processors, making it ideal for real-time Large Language Model (LLM) inference, next-level training performance, and large-volume data processing. The C880A M8 supports customers across the entire AI stack, from large-scale model training and fine-tuning to real-time inferencing and large-volume data processing. It integrates seamlessly into Cisco’s AI strategy, connecting and protecting the AI era by providing robust compute infrastructure. This server expands the Cisco UCS® dense AI server portfolio, offering a powerful solution for enterprises across various industries, including service providers, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, life sciences, and automotive. With its advanced architecture, the C880A M8 ensures unparalleled performance, scalability, and enterprise manageability, making it ideal for compute-intensive AI use cases such as large-scale AI model training, fine tuning, and inferencing.
Unleashing AI potential with NVIDIA HGX B300
The Cisco UCS C880A M8 Rack Server stands out by integrating the cutting-edge NVIDIA HGX platform with eight NVIDIA B300 (SXM) GPUs. This powerful GPU configuration is at the heart of its capability to deliver next-level performance for the most demanding AI workloads, including large-scale AI model training, fine tuning, and real-time inferencing. The B300 GPUs provide immense parallel processing capabilities and high-speed GPU interconnects, which are critical for accelerating complex deep learning models and large language models. This integration ensures that enterprises can achieve higher token throughput and improve the economics of their AI operations, enabling profitable scaling of LLM and agentic workloads.
Comprehensive enterprise AI manageability
The Cisco UCS C880A M8 Rack Server is designed for enterprise readiness. In a future release, the C880A M8 will enable management through Cisco Intersight.
Cisco Intersight provides a cloud-based management platform that simplifies server lifecycle management, offering capabilities such as power operations, extensive monitoring metrics, server configuration management, and firmware bundle release management. This centralized control and observability streamlines AI infrastructure operations, reduces complexity, and ensures consistent policy enforcement across the data center.
Purpose-built for AI and HPC workloads
Beyond raw power, the Cisco UCS C880A M8 Rack Server is architected specifically to meet the unique demands of AI and HPC. Its design supports real-time large language model Inference, enabling rapid deployment and responsiveness for AI-driven applications. It also excels in next-level training performance, significantly reducing the time required to train complex AI models. Furthermore, its capacity for large-volume data processing makes it an ideal platform for data-science and big-data analytics, including GPU-accelerated ETL processes. This specialized design ensures that organizations can build, optimize, and utilize AI models efficiently, accelerating business growth with scalable and high-performance solutions.
The Cisco UCS C880A M8 is a dedicated rack server platform designed to host and accelerate AI and HPC workloads. It supports various operating systems and virtualization platforms typically used in data center environments for AI/HPC deployments. Specific software stack compatibility includes NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA NIM (NVIDIA Inference Microservices) for AI application deployment and optimization.
Table 1. Summary of features and benefits of the Cisco UCS C880A M8 Rack Server
| Feature |
Benefit |
| NVIDIA HGX with 8 NVIDIA B300 (SXM) GPUs |
Leverages NVIDIA’s flagship supercomputing GPUs to deliver unparalleled processing power, crucial for accelerating AI model training, fine tuning, and inferencing |
| Two Intel Xeon 6th Gen processors |
High-frequency, high-throughput CPUs optimized to complement GPU acceleration—ideal for feeding data into training and inference pipelines without bottlenecks |
| Board-integrated NVIDIA ConnectX-8 NICs (E/W traffic) |
Embedded east/west 800G networking fabric delivers ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth inter-GPU, and inter-server communication for scalable AI training |
| Upto 8 X E1.S NVMe SSDs |
High-performance local NVMe storage provides ultra-low-latency data caching and fast checkpointing for AI-model training. |
| Hot-swappable, redundant power supplies |
Enterprise-class resiliency with redundant, easily serviceable power supplies designed to minimize downtime and maximize availability |
| Real-time Large Language Model (LLM) inference |
Enables rapid and efficient deployment of LLMs, supporting real-time applications and services that require immediate responses |
| Next-level training performance |
Significantly reduces the time required for training large and complex AI models, allowing for faster iteration and development cycles |
| Large-volume data processing |
Designed to handle massive datasets, facilitating accelerated Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes and GPU-accelerated big-data analytics |
| Future releases: enterprise AI manageability with Cisco Intersight® |
Cisco Intersight will provide centralized cloud-based management for the server in an upcoming release, offering such capabilities as power operations, monitoring, server configuration management, and firmware updates, simplifying operational tasks and ensuring consistent control |
| Validated solutions for AI |
Part of Cisco’s strategy to offer validated AI solutions that encompass compute, network, storage, and software, ensuring reliable and optimized performance for AI factories |
| Scalable infrastructure |
Optimized for high-density GPU platforms, delivering predictable performance across AI factories and allowing for flexible expansion inside Cisco AI PODs to accommodate growing AI demands |
Table 2. Cisco UCS C880A M8 Rack Server key specifications (NVIDIA HGX B300 GPU-based configurations)
| Component |
Specification |
| Form factor |
10RU 19” rack server (based on NVIDIA’s HGX reference architecture) |
| Processors |
2x Intel Xeon 6th Gen 6776P or 2x Intel Xeon 6th Gen 6767P |
| Memory |
32x 64GB DDR5 RDIMM or 32x 96GB DDR5 RDIMM or 32x 128GB DDR5 RDIMM |
| GPU |
8x Nvidia HGX B300 NVL8 |
| Boot Drive |
2x 960GB M.2 NVMe SSD with RAID controller |
| Internal Storage |
Up to 8x PCIe Gen5 x4 E1.S NVMe SSD |
| E-W Networking |
8x GPU-board integrated ConnectX-8 |
| N-S Networking |
2x CX-7 2x200G (crypto) or 2x B3220 2x200G (crypto) or 2x B3240 2x400G (crypto) 1x OCP TFF Gen5 x8 |
| Power Supply |
12x 80PLUS 54V 3.2kW MCRPS hot-swappable redundant PSUs (N+N) |
| Management |
Cisco BMC |
| Hardware and Software Interoperability |
See the Cisco Hardware and Software Interoperability List for a complete listing of supported operating systems and peripheral options |
Table 3. Ordering information
| Part # |
Product description |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B301 |
2x Intel Xeon 6776P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 96GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA ConnectX-7 (2x200G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B302 |
2x Intel Xeon 6776P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 96GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data Drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA B3220 (2x200G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B303 |
2x Intel Xeon 6776P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 128GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data Drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA ConnectX-7 (2x200G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B304 |
2x Intel Xeon 6776P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 128GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data Drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA B3220 (2x200G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B305 |
2x Intel Xeon 6776P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 96GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data Drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA B3240 (2x400G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B306 |
2x Intel Xeon 6776P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 128GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data Drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA B3240 (2x400G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B307 |
2x Intel Xeon 6776P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 64GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data Drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA ConnectX-7 (2x200G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
| UCSC-880A-M8-B308 |
2x Intel Xeon 6767P 2.3 GHz (Max Turbo 3.9 GHz) CPUs, 8x NVIDIA HGX B300 SXM GPUs, 32x 96GB up to 4000 MT/s DIMMs, 2x 960GB M.2 SATA Boot Drive, 2x E1.S 3.84TB NVMe SSD Data Drives, 8x NVIDIA ConnectX-8 (GPU board integrated) for East/West N/W, 2x NVIDIA ConnectX-7 (2x200G) crypto-enabled for North/South N/W, 1x Intel X710-T2L OCP |
Cisco UCS C885A M8 Rack Servers have a three-year Next-Business-Day (NBD) hardware warranty and 90-day software warranty.
Augmenting the Cisco UCS warranty is Cisco Success Tracks. Success Tracks add the best of both digital and human intelligence to your support experience. For more detailed information on the ST deliverables, please refer to the description here.
Information about Cisco’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives and performance is provided in Cisco’s CSR and sustainability reporting.
Table 4. Cisco environmental sustainability information
| Sustainability Topic |
Reference |
|
| General |
Information on product-material-content laws and regulations |
|
| Information on electronic waste laws and regulations, including our products, batteries, and packaging |
||
| Information on product takeback and reuse program |
||
| Sustainability Inquiries |
Contact: csr_inquiries@cisco.com |
|
| Material |
Product packaging weight and materials |
Contact: environment@cisco.com |
Cisco and our industry-leading partners deliver services that accelerate your transition to Cisco UCS® solutions for AI and high-performance computing. Cisco Unified Computing Services™ can help you create an agile infrastructure, accelerate time to value, reduce costs and risks and maintain availability during deployment and migration. After deployment, our services can help you improve performance, availability, and resiliency as your business needs evolve, and help you further mitigate risk.
For more information, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/unifiedcomputingservices.
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