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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JUNE 30, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 26
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Systems/Enterprise:
TOPSPIN DEBUTS INTELLIGENT
BACKPLANE FOR ON DEMAND COMPUTING
Topspin Communications, a leader in switched computing, announced a
significant technology enhancement to its Switched Computing System. Topspin
has added a hardware abstraction layer and programmable APIs to its switches
which provide the first server, storage, and software agnostic programmable
interconnect for creating flexible grid computing architectures.
Topspin's new technology will be on display at Cluster World Conference and
Expo, June 24-26, booth #113. Topspin will demonstrate how the Switched
Computing System translates policies - defined by third-party and homegrown
provisioning applications - into actions that map server, storage, and
networking resources together on the fly.
"Topspin is the first company to enable on demand computing exclusively at
the
interconnect level," said Vernon Turner, Group Vice President, Global
Enterprise Server Solutions, IDC. "With standards-based technology compatible
with all server, storage, and software resources, Topspin has positioned
itself as a strong partner for any of the large system and application vendors
looking to bring the on-demand computing vision to market."
By clustering servers and implementing system and data mapping intelligence
through a single switch, Topspin enables core enterprise applications, like
databases, to scale up and down based on business requirements.
"Oracle has worked closely with Topspin for the last year to enable highly
scalable database clusters across InfiniBand," said Benny Souder, vice
president of Distributed Database Development, Oracle Corporation. "With
additional ability to program connections through their switches, we believe
Topspin's solution can provide a superb networking foundation for Oracle's
grid architecture where computing and data resources are provisioned on the
fly. This provides customers with the ability to securely, efficiently, and
dynamically align resources based on their business needs."
"This is a major milestone in completing our switched computing vision,"
said
Stu Aaron, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development at Topspin.
"With our programmable switches, I/O gateways and mapping intelligence, we're
raising the bar for cluster interconnect solutions. And, we're committed to
helping the major system and software vendors deliver their flexible computing
visions."
Topspin's Switched Computing Systems enable flexible computing by providing
three building blocks in one solution.
1) An extremely fast InfiniBand-based switch for interconnecting volume
servers into highly scalable application clusters
2) An intelligent backplane for linking these clusters with their storage
and
networking resources through InfiniBand-to-Fibre Channel and InfiniBand-to-
Ethernet gateways
3) And now, the new hardware abstraction layer with APIs through which
third-
party provisioning applications can direct the switch to implement
policies
The Topspin switch uses externally defined policies to decide when and how
to
establish connections between server, storage, and networking resources
required by each application. The switch moves application images from storage
to server and links each server with the appropriate amount of storage and
network bandwidth as needed. By automating the process of interconnecting
resources, Topspin eliminates the most costly and labor-intensive part of the
application provisioning process.
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