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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Breaking News -
Networking:
NCSA Chooses Force10 For TeraGrid
Deployment Phase II
Force10 Networks Inc, a pioneer in high availability switching and routing,
announced that the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at
the University of Illinois has selected Force10 Networks E-Series E1200 high
density Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch/routers. The E-Series
will be used in Phase II of NCSA's portion of the TeraGrid project.
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), TeraGrid is a
multi-institutional effort to build and deploy the world's most comprehensive
computing infrastructure for open scientific research. IBM provided
integration services for the deployment.
Force10's E-Series switch/routers have already been deployed in Phase I of
the
project at NCSA as well as at the three other original TeraGrid sites:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); the Center for Advanced Computing Research
(CACR) at the California Institute of Technology; and the San Diego
Supercomputer Center (SDSC).
"NCSA selected Force10 Networks' E1200 platform for our TeraGrid cluster
aggregation solution for two key reasons. First, the E1200 was, and continues
to be, the highest density Gigabit Ethernet switch available in the
marketplace. Second, the E1200 delivers upon its promise of line-rate
performance across all ports," said Patrick Dorn, NCSA Technical Program
manager. "Since the time of NCSA's initial selection of the E1200, Force10
Networks has continued to impress me with their commitment. Their level of
support has been very good throughout the deployment process. Additionally,
Force10 has met their proposed timelines for all key hardware and software
enhancements."
"The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is one of a small
group
of institutions that will define the future of high performance computing,"
said Andrew Feldman, vice president marketing at Force10 Networks. "The
TeraGrid project is one of the largest and most demanding network environments
in the world, and this deployment is testament to the massive scalability and
reliability of the E-Series."
Research centers such as NCSA are driving the expansion of cluster Grid
computing, the next IT revolution. Ultimately, computational Grids will allow
users to access enormous "virtual supercomputers" -- computers at different
locations linked together to work as one -- that will provide CPU cycles on
demand. The NSF TeraGrid project uses a dedicated 40Gb per second wide area
backplane to connect computers, storage facilities, visualization systems and
applications at NCSA and other TeraGrid sites to create the most comprehensive
Grid computing environment for open scientific research in the United States.
Clusters connected over this Grid are using 10 GbE interconnections between
Gigabit Ethernet-attached Linux server clusters.
The Force10 E-Series, the E1200 and E600, is a new generation of
switch/routers providing resilient, reliable line-rate IP routing and
switching at Gigabit and 10 Gigabit speeds. Built around the EtherScale ASICs,
the E-Series offers the industry's first fully distributed hardware
architecture. This, in combination with the fully modular FTOS software,
enables the E-Series to provide best-in-class resiliency and redundancy at
line rate 10 Gigabit speeds while enabling new levels of network-based
security with unique protection against Denial of Service attacks.
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