InfiniBand Networking

This InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter (HCA) is the first dual-ported 4x (10Gb) HCA to comply with the PCI-X low profile form factor, enabling systems to be connected to a 10Gbs InfiniBand fabric. This adapter interfaces through the PCI or PCI-X bus, protecting investments made in existing servers while providing a path to InfiniBand for future server acquisitions.

This single link provides a fat-pipe over which multiple traffic types can be prioritized and transported. A robust suite of Upper Layer Protocols (ULPs) enables high performance connections to LAN, WAN, SAN, and IPC networks. The result is better response times and more transactions per second; reduction in infrastructure complexity lowering operational and capital cost; and reduced server processing requirements through the efficiencies found in InfiniBand resulting in elongation of useful server life.

This low profile, dual-port 4X (10 Gbps) InfiniBand host channel adapter card enables industry standard servers to access the full performance of a high speed InfiniBand fabric. Available for both PCI Express and PCI/PCI-X-based dense servers, this HCA includes complete software support for a range of demanding enterprise and high performance computing applications.

TCP/IP emulation software incorporated into the software stack makes InfiniBand appear to the user as a standard IP network with IP addressing, TCP/IP protocols, RDMA protocols, network booting, and IP management. This enables easy deployment and maintenance and the use of standards-based IP software and management infrastructure.

This series of InfiniBand switches are ideally suited for constructing the highest performance, lowest latency, and most cost-effective small to large HPC and database clustering fabrics. Each switch supports thirty-two 4X (10 Gbps) or 1X (2.5 Gbps) InfiniBand switch ports in a 1U form factor. These switches are the building blocks of a clustering fabric that boosts message traffic speeds by up to 10 times over current technologies, while delivering switching latencies that are measured in only nanoseconds and MPI Small Message Latencies as low as 5.5µs end-to-end Embedded or server-based software enables central configuration and management of the entire InfiniBand fabric.

This family of switches is the industry's leading modular system series for creating enterprise-class cluster server fabrics based on InfiniBand. Offering from 24 up to 288 InfiniBand ports in a single system, these switches are designed to maximize performance, streamline operations, and ensure uptime by providing full hardware and software reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features. In addition, a unique architecture also enables shared access to embedded Fibre Channel and Ethernet ports, offering a virtual pool of network connections to all attached servers to streamline both the cost and complexity of server deployments.

The management suite embedded into each system has been designed to enable advanced features such as non-disruptive management module failover and non-disruptive code load and activation for the InfiniBand switching fabric. Advanced features for network I/O include port-to-port and module-to-module failover, thus keeping all networks running in case of a failure. Power cycling and rolling system resets are not required with this family of InfiniBand products.

With twenty-four 10 Gbps ports in a 1U chassis, this high performance, low latency, fully non-blocking switch has a throughput of 480 Gbps. Redundant power cooling without fans dramatically improves system performance, while configuration and maintenance of the InfiniBand fabric are simplified with a full-featured graphical user interface and command line interface. This switch provides a base for InfiniBand fabrics that can scale from several to hundreds of nodes.