topic Re: What is NetApp CAPU (Computing Acceleration Processing Unit) in ONTAP Discussions

What is NetApp CAPU (Computing Acceleration Processing Unit)

petter_glenstrup — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:04:49 GMT

I read this thing about CAPU, what is it ?? I know about PAM II but i have never heard about PAM II or FlashCache being refered to as a CAPU card.

This CAPU card should as i read it in this BNUG customer powerpoint be:

All the new features are very greedy on CPU. Again
NetApp solves this with the same approach as for cache -> PAM card. They have a dedicated card: CAPU, to enhance the computing performance.
• No need to upgrade the controller to have better performance and more I/O.
• If ONTAP detects the CAPU card it will automatically use it for heavy CPU consuming processes like SnapMirror, SnapVault, SnapEncrypt, SnapCompress, Deduplication.
• It doesn’t impact the I/O of the controller so I can guarantee my SLAs.

Is it a ekstra CPU card that we can put into a PCIe slot to do specific CPU entensive jobs ?

If any of you have any knowledge about this CAPU or have a link to a TR or some link, please post it here.

Best Regards

Petter Glenstrup

Re: What is NetApp CAPU (Computing Acceleration Processing Unit)

ekashpureff — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:07:04 GMT

Petter -

I'd chalk this up to the same category as the snaptrust/snapencrypt issue.

( it did come from the slides that were part of 'Future ?' )

Vaporware from somewhere ? If it's not on the NOW site docs, I'm not going to believe in it.

You may want to track down the author of the BNUG presentation.

I have to wonder if there's something in a translation problem ?

I hope this response has been helpful to you.

At your service,

Eugene E. Kashpureff
ekashp@kashpureff.org
Fastlane NetApp Instructor and Independent Consultant
http://www.fastlaneus.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekashpureff

(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

Re: What is NetApp CAPU (Computing Acceleration Processing Unit)

petter_glenstrup — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:16:50 GMT

Yes it is the same story as SnapEncrypt and SnapTrust !

But i wil try and ask the BNUG guys directly on email and if they point me to a site or give me any kind of information about it, i will post it here.

Best Regards

Petter Glenstrup