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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 11, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 32
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Breaking News - Networking:
InfiniCon Introduces New 10Gbps Switches For HPC Fabrics
InfiniCon Systems, a premier provider of shared I/O and switching solutions
for next-generation server networks, has introduced the InfinIO 3000 Switching
Series -- the most powerful, densest switching solution available for building
scalable Database Cluster and High Performance Computing (HPC) fabrics.
The InfinIO 3000 provides thirty-two 10Gbps InfiniBand ports in 1U of rack
space, delivering up to 640Gbps of non-blocking, full bisectional bandwidth
(FBB) in the industry's smallest form factor. Boasting switching latencies
that are as much as 45% faster than competitive offerings, the InfinIO 3000 is
the ideal interconnect for building high performance computer clusters from
groups of commodity servers.
In a recent report on the worldwide technical computing market, leading
industry analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC) showed HPC revenue
at $4.7 billion in 2002, and forecasted it to climb to $6.3 billion by 2007.
"As the HPC market continues to expand, customers require denser, more
powerful switching solutions to bring together larger clusters of commodity
servers. Using advanced middleware such as MPI/Pro and ChaMPIon/Pro, these
clusters use commodity processors to surpass the performance of proprietary
mainframe supercomputers, but at a fraction of the price," stated Anthony
Skjellum, CTO for MPI Software Technology. "The introduction of the InfinIO
3000 Series brings incredible density and power to these production clusters."
Ports On Demand: Easy Implementation of Entry-Level Fabrics
In addition to the unprecedented performance and density levels that the
InfinIO 3000 brings to data center networking, the family also incorporates
InfiniCon's exclusive new "Ports On Demand" (POD) technology. The base InfinIO
3000 Switch offering has 16 of its 32 ports active; through softkeys,
customers have the flexibility to expand the InfinIO 3000 in 4-port
increments, paying for ports only as they are needed and without disruption to
the switch fabric. "Our 'Ports On Demand' technology brings to the networking
arena the very pay-as-you-grow benefits that end users have been clamoring for
from servers, storage, and networking vendors," noted InfiniCon CEO Charles
Foley. "InfiniCon has now made entry into InfiniBand networking easier and
even more affordable, while at the same time making growth virtually
painless."
"InfiniBand architecture has been gaining impressive traction during 2003 for
HPC deployments, but users are still looking for low-risk, easy growth options
that enable them to evaluate prototypes and expand these systems through p
roduction phases," noted Vernon Turner, group vice president, IDC Enterprise
Server Solutions. "InfiniCon's InfinIO 3000 Switch Series and its
'Ports-On-Demand' technology satisfy these market conditions fully."
InfinIO 3000 Series: Intelligent Building Blocks for Scalable Fabrics The
InfinIO 3000 Series is a family of models that allow price/performance
optimization for different tiers of large HPC fabrics. Each plays a key
"building block" role in constructing multi-tier fabrics that are able to
achieve the productivity and performance metrics desired as HPC applications
scale, while greatly reducing fabric complexity. Combined with InfiniCon's
complete host software environment, measured performance results illustrate an
industry-leading 5.5 microseconds end-to-end latency for computationally
intensive, MPI-based applications.
By utilizing the appropriate InfinIO 3000 models within tiers of a large
port-count fabric, InfiniCon's 'intelligent building block' approach utilizes
literally hundreds of fewer switching chips than competitive switch
architectures - a design advantage that slashes costs and combats latency by
dramatically lowering fabric 'hop counts'. Even in mid-sized fabrics, InfinIO
3000 building blocks can reduce latency by nearly 600% over alternative design
approaches - a productivity measure that is especially key to HPC users such
as research laboratories, oil and gas concerns, and universities that have
been on the vanguard of deploying InfiniBand for computationally-intense
applications.
Synergy With Dense Computing Trends
The InfinIO 3000's compact size is in lockstep with the trend toward dense
server offerings, and the ever-present need to conserve floor space in
enterprise data centers. A 512-port fabric built upon InfiniCon 3000 Switch
technology occupies a mere 25% of the rack space requirements that most
competitive switching topologies would require.
"The InfinIO 3000 has the features for a great complementary offering -- both
in performance and size -- to the new generation of compact, powerful rack
server products targeting mission-critical database and HPC workloads in the
enterprise datacenter," said Phil Hester, CEO, and Co-founder of Newisys, a
leading developer of enterprise-class server and storage technologies for OEM
and systems integrators.
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