Cluster Computing:

INFINICON ANNOUNCES NEW LEVELS FROM INFINIBAND-BASED SYSTEM

InfiniCon Systems, a premier provider of shared I/O and switching solutions for next-generation server networks, announced that its InfinIO family of products ­ leveraging InfiniBand architecture ­ has attained unprecedented performance results in a series of key tests measuring application latency, bandwidth throughput, scalability, and I/O throughput. These test results provide the most comprehensive indicators yet of an InfiniBand-based system's value to enhance CPU clustering, accelerate application throughput, and drive server traffic to standard Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks.

Test Scenarios InfiniCon's test bed systems consist of standard servers from Dell, IBM, and Appro, and standardized storage and networking systems from a variety of vendors. Industry-standard and accepted performance tools were used to determine throughput results, such as the Chariot benchmarking tool, the published Ohio State University benchmarking tools for High Performance Computing (HPC) testing, and protocol analyzers.

In multiple benchmark scenarios, various performance parameters were measured including application latency for both HPC and datacenter applications over an InfiniBand fabric; bandwidth throughput for InfiniBand-attached servers across both Ethernet and InfiniBand networks; and I/O throughput from InfiniBand- attached servers to Fibre Channel SANs. Multiple servers were configured using InfiniCon's InfiniServ 7000 Host Channel Adapter, which offers servers a true 10Gb/second link to network resources. The servers were configured in a fabric based upon InfiniCon's InfinIO 7000 Shared I/O and Clustering System, the industry's first system to integrate InfiniBand, Ethernet, and Fibre Channel switching and I/O support in a single platform. Fibre Channel storage and Ethernet clients were added through the InfinIO 7000.

Test Results: Sub 6 Microseconds Latency for HPC Applications In HPC applications using the industry-standard MPI API for system-to-system communications, the InfiniCon systems were able to achieve end-to-end latencies of 5.5 microseconds, and prove capable of driving bandwidth above 880MB/second on a single network connection. When configured to support standard IP-based applications using the industry-standard IP-over-InfiniBand (IPoIB) protocol, applications drove data in excess of 350MB/second for a single link, compared to an average of 65MB/second for a Gigabit Ethernet link.

Test Results: 150,000 I/Os Per Second for Fibre Channel Applications Most impressive were the I/O rates when driving traffic to standard Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks. Using standard Intel-based servers, InfiniCon's VFx Fibre Channel Gateway line card demonstrated performance in excess of 150,000 I/Os per second over two 2Gb/s Fibre Channel ports, providing enough I/O throughput on a single card to support over twenty average servers. InfiniCon's VEx Ethernet Gateway line card demonstrated similarly impressive results, delivering over 350MB/second throughput over 3 GbE ports ­ enough for dozens of commodity servers to share.

"InfiniBand was designed from the ground up for high-performance, but there has been a looming question of how it would really perform when put to the test," stated Jamie Gruener, senior analyst for Yankee Group. "InfiniCon's results indicate that, when coupled with an intelligent design and robust software, both InfiniBand and the concept of shared I/O are primed for datacenter-type workloads."

"Our InfinIO systems deliver comprehensive, across the board performance in latency and bandwidth over InfiniBand, Ethernet, and Fibre Channel. These results surpass any other system available today," stated Todd Matters, chief technology officer of InfiniCon Systems. "Through our software and system architecture, we deliver these advantages seamlessly to customers, enabling them to realize greater cost performance benefits, without the management headaches that come when application changes are required."

InfinIO Architecture: Incorporating Best-of-Breed Technologies InfinIO's impressive results were attained in part because of industry-leading performance derived from components provided by key InfiniCon technology partners.

"At Agilent Technologies, we focus on producing high-performance silicon that offers business benefits to a broad range of customers, and our partnership with InfiniCon exemplifies this," said Dr. Hungwen Li, vice president and general manager of Agilent's RedSwitch Division. "InfiniCon is a leader in leveraging InfiniBand technology to produce high-performance, high- availability systems for the data center."

"We have been working with InfiniCon to optimize the performance profile of InfiniBand to allow it to fulfill its promise as the most powerful interconnect available for standard computing," stated Eyal Waldman, CEO of Mellanox Technologies. "These results clearly demonstrate the power of our InfiniHost HCA silicon offering when delivered by a talented systems and software partner."