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Foundry Networks Allies With Chelsio, Ammasso, S2io

Foundry Networks has formed an alliance with Chelsio Communications, Ammasso, and S2io in order to cooperate in developing and delivering high-performance computing (HPC) solutions as part of Foundry's HPC Ethernet Alliance Program. Foundry's HPC Ethernet Alliance Program is designed to accelerate deployment of high- performance Gb Ethernet and 10-Gb Ethernet (10-GbE) solutions within the HPC community. As part of the program, Foundry will work closely with Chelsio to deliver standards-based, high-performance HPC solutions for high- speed networking applications.

As part of the Foundry HPC Ethernet Alliance Program, Foundry, Chelsio Communications, Ammasso, and S2io will work together in the following areas:

• Interoperability testing and benchmarking of Foundry's Ethernet switches with Chelsio's 10 Gb Ethernet adapters to provide customers with seamless integration and end-to-end performance measurements. Independent performance benchmarking of Foundry's 10 Gb Ethernet switches and Chelsio's T110 10 Gb Ethernet adapters conducted by VeriTest demonstrated the industry-leading performance capabilities of this end-to-end solution.
• Cooperative marketing to promote the use of 10-GbE in HPC environments
• Cross training on the benefits of an integrated, solutions-based HPC networking approach

In Oct. 2004, Foundry and Chelsio Communications were two of several technology providers that cooperated with leading research organizations to create the world's longest native 10 Gb Ethernet connection, from the Japanese Data Reservoir project to the CERN research center in Geneva, Switzerland, spanning approximately 18,500 km and 17 time zones. The connection used 10 Gb Ethernet switching and WAN PHY technology from Foundry and Chelsio's T110 10 Gb Ethernet adapters with programmable, high-performance TCP/IP offload.

"Chelsio has established its leadership position as the only supplier today shipping 10 Gb Ethernet adapters with full TCP/IP offload and iSCSI acceleration, delivering superior value in high-performance computing applications," said Kianoosh Naghshineh, president and CEO of Chelsio Communications. "Together with Foundry Networks, a recognized leader in 10 Gb Ethernet switches, we are delivering huge performance gains and cost savings to enterprise data centers and cluster computing environments."

"Ethernet is becoming the interconnect of choice for a new generation of high- performance networks, from massively parallel processing supercomputers to commodity clusters and grids built with affordable, off-the-shelf components. As a leading provider of high-performance, low-latency network infrastructure to many leading supercomputing sites around the world, Foundry is working with Chelsio to bring the benefits of Ethernet to the high-performance computing community," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager of the Layer 2/3 Switching and Routing Solutions Business Unit for Foundry. "With the HPC Ethernet Alliance Program, we are formalizing our longstanding commitment to work with partners to deliver the highest-quality, tested and proven networking solutions to simplify deployments, and ultimately help customers spend less time building and managing their networks and more time on their primary scientific and business mission."

Until now, a challenge facing customers who want to leverage standard networks for high-performance computing has been the lack of high-bandwidth, low- latency networking solutions based on the widely-used Ethernet standard. By combining the Ammasso 1100 high performance, low latency RDMA-enabled Ethernet adapter with Foundry's portfolio of industry-leading low-latency switches, customers can now extend the use of Ethernet for high-performance server-to- server networking.

"As customers move toward using clusters of low cost, standards-based servers, the need for efficient, high performance server-to-server networks has become critical," said Larry Genovesi, CEO of Ammasso. "By working with Foundry Networks, we can enable customers to leverage existing investment in their Ethernet infrastructures and extend it to incorporate high performance applications."

"S2io is pleased to be part of Foundry's HPC Ethernet Alliance program," said Dave Zabrowski, president and CEO of S2io Inc. "This announcement is a further indication of the rapid development of the 10 Gb Ethernet ecosystem because of the technology's inherent reliability, interoperability and performance capabilities. S2io is one of the 10 Gb Ethernet Adapter market leaders today, and this type of alliance will strengthen our lead."