SR-IOV
Single Root IO Virtualization (SR-IOV)
SR-IOV (Single Root - I/O Virtualization) is a technology that allows a single PCIe device to appear as multiple separate physical devices to the host system. Disabling SR-IOV can affect how the GPU is exposed to the operating system and drivers[1]
SR-IOV is commonly used in conjunction with an SR-IOV enabled hypervisor to provide virtual machines direct hardware access to network resources hence increasing its performance.
Configuring SR-IOV (InfiniBand)
NVIDIA adapters are capable of exposing up to 127 virtual instances (Virtual Functions (VFs) for each port in the NVIDIA ConnectX® family cards. These virtual functions can then be provisioned separately. Each VF can be seen as an additional device connected to the Physical Function. It shares the same resources with the Physical Function, and its number of ports equals those of the Physical Function[2]