InfiniCon Systems announces next gen 30Gbps InfiniBand switches for high performance computing fabrics - InfinIO 9024

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Dec 8, 2003

InfiniCon Systems, a provider of shared I/O and switching solutions for next-generation server networks, recently announced the InfinIO 9000 Switching Series. Supporting 30Gbps links, the 9000 Series is the highest bandwidth switching solution available for building scalable Database Cluster and High Performance Computing (HPC) fabrics.

The initial product in the 9000 Series is the InfinIO 9024. A densely packaged switching solution that provides up to twenty-four 10Gbps InfiniBand ports, up to eight 30Gbps ports, or a combination of the two, in only 1U of rack space, the InfinIO 9024 delivers up to 480Gbps of non-blocking, full bisectional bandwidth (FBB) in less space than a single traditional rack-mounted server. It is scheduled for availability in January 2004.

"The breakthrough levels in performance and price achieved through dense switching solutions like the InfinIO 9024, combined with mature software offerings such as InfiniCon's suite, will continue to make InfiniBand fabrics increasingly attractive for the emerging HPC market," stated Vernon Turner, Group Vice President of Global Enterprise Server Solutions at IDC. In a recent report on the worldwide technical computing market, IDC showed HPC revenue at $4.7 billion in 2002, and forecasted it to climb to $6.3 billion by 2007.

The InfinIO 9000 joins the InfinIO 2000, 3000, and 7000 switch families to offer users the most complete, flexible, and cost-effective solution set for implementing fabric, grid, and cluster computing. Because it leverages improved price points available through a dense single-chip switching implementation in the form of the Mellanox InfiniScale III InfiniBand chip, the InfinIO 9024 is ideal for small database and HPC clusters, and as an 'edge switch' for larger fabrics that feature the InfinIO 3000 core switches. It can also be integrated with the award-winning InfinIO 7000 Shared I/O System, enabling servers on an InfiniBand fabric to share existing Fibre Channel and Ethernet network resources, without requiring additional adapters or network interface cards.

The InfinIO 9000 Series is a fully managed switching solution and maintains seamless integration with InfiniCon's industry-leading InfinIO Software Suite, which includes a complete host environment as well as world-class fabric management for emerging large-scale networks. Through the InfinIO software family, fabrics comprised of hundreds and even thousands of servers can be scaled and managed by users with ease-of-management and full high-availability. A rich array of upper layer protocols is supported for clustering applications, such as MPI, uDAPL, IPoverIB, and SDP, as well as protocols to allow access to existing Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks.

The InfinIO 9024 is the first product in the 9000 Series and will be joined in the first half of 2004 by larger director-class models that pack over one hundred 10Gbps InfiniBand ports in a single, densely packaged switch to enable larger HPC clusters to be built without the complexity of cabling together a large number of small switches.

"The average size of HPC fabrics using InfiniBand technology continues to grow. This is driven by the success and acceptance of commodity clusters using Intel Itanium2 and AMD Opteron CPUs," stated Daniel Kim, president and CEO of Appro, a leading provider of high-density, high-performance enterprise computing systems. "Linking together an ever increasing number of commodity-based servers through a high-speed interconnect is becoming the preferred strategy for addressing large-scale computing challenges."

Leveraging the breakthrough advances of the InfiniBand architecture, InfiniCon Systems offers a complete systems solution for enabling data centers to migrate to a fabric/grid model of computing. Our award-winning InfinIO product family provides the dynamic infrastructure required for designing and managing highly scalable, highly available clustered server environments that integrate seamlessly into today's Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks.