Cluster Computing:

ASAP PROGRAM PARTNERS DRIVE CLUSTERING IN EUROPE AND ASIA

InfiniCon Systems, the premier provider of I/O virtualization and clustering solutions for next-generation server networks, announced that it has expanded its Authorized Solutions Alliance Providers (ASAP) Program, signing partnership agreements with four international companies to market and sell its InfinIO family of InfiniBand-based networking solutions.

The four additions to InfiniCon's ASAP channel partner program are Dalco (Switzerland), Melrow Technology (Netherlands), T-Platforms (Russia), and UNIWIDE Technologies (Korea). All of the companies provide clustered server solutions as part of their offerings, targeting a mix of computational and commercial high performance computing (HPC) markets such as aerospace, oil and gas, education, finance, and government.

In February 2004, InfiniCon added six ASAP channel partners to significantly extend its reach into the burgeoning HPC market, where the InfiniBand architecture has gained significant momentum as the premier high-speed, low latency interconnect. Against this backdrop, InfiniCon's InfinIO family has proven to be InfiniBand's most robust and scalable switching solution, serving as the infrastructure for large production clusters containing as many as 512 dual processor nodes. AMD recently selected InfiniCon to provide a 128-node fabric for the AMD Developer Center to facilitate testing of applications running on Opteron-based clusters.

"Our newest ASAP partners have valuable experience in all aspects of cluster design and deployment, and address diverse market opportunities," noted InfiniCon vice president of sales, Bill Maxwell. "The breadth of InfiniCon's product offerings and our track record in delivering the industry's most scalable InfiniBand fabrics will empower these companies to provide their customers with the most compelling price/performance solutions available for HPC applications of all sizes."

InfiniCon's ASAP program trains and certifies partnering companies on the functionality and deployment of InfiniCon's complete family of switching and shared I/O systems, which leverage the high bandwidth (up to 30Gbps) and low latency attributes of InfiniBand to provide a superior networking infrastructure for supporting fabric/grid models of computing.