Switch chip opens up InfiniBand architecture

The jointly developed high-performance HDMP-2840 InfiniBand switch chip is available now from both RedSwitch and Agilent Technologies.

The jointly developed high-performance HDMP-2840 InfiniBand switch chip is available now from both RedSwitch and Agilent Technologies.

Both companies jointly developed and will independently sell the InfiniBand Switch chip, which will enable OEMs to implement the InfiniBand architecture and significantly improve the performance of storage, computing, and communications applications.

Rapidly expanding its presence in enterprise applications, InfiniBand is now delivering true 10Gbit/s transport capabilities with greater performance and reliability at a fraction of the cost of other 10Gbit/s technologies.

"InfiniBand architecture joins together servers, storage, and gateway devices into a unified fabric that brings scalability, management, and performance by using open, industry-standard technology", said Vernon Turner, group vice president at IDC.

"RedSwitch and Agilent's achievement will enable InfiniBand solutions across the IT landscape, thereby creating many cost-saving opportunities for IT managers".

The RedSwitch and Agilent HDMP-2840 is the industry's highest performance and most highly integrated InfiniBand switch chip.

The device includes 32 embedded serdes and offers eight ports, each running at 10Gbit/s full-duplex, in a fully nonblocking switch architecture.

Cut-through pin-to-pin latency is 110ns, enabling ease of scalability for interprocessor communication applications.

The HDMP-2840 provides 160Gbit/s of wire-speed bandwidth and was designed to be compliant with the InfiniBand Trade Association specification.

"This is an exciting time for RedSwitch and our customers", said Hungwen Li, president and CEO of RedSwitch.

"The HDMP-2840 is the first of many switch fabric solutions that will not only accelerate the adoption of the InfiniBand architecture but also will enable the deployment of standards-based switch fabrics for computing, storage, networking and telecom applications".

"We are pleased that the successful collaboration between Agilent and RedSwitch has yielded an InfiniBand switch IC with industry-leading performance", said Martin Scott, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Storage and Networking Division.

"The combination of RedSwitch's expertise in switch architecture and Agilent's strength in high-performance ASIC implementation and high-volume manufacturing has resulted in an InfiniBand switch IC destined for integration into many next-generation InfiniBand systems".

InfiniCon Systems is one of many OEMs to implement the RedSwitch solution in their high performance enterprise products.

InfiniCon has integrated the HDMP-2840 into its shared I/O architecture, a multiprotocol networking system that dynamically allocates I/O resources which InfiniBand architecture-enabled servers can share for improved levels of connectivity and throughput into existing Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks, as well as native InfiniBand fabrics.

"The high performance switching solution offered by RedSwitch is an integral part of our shared I/O chassis", said Bill King, vice-president of sales and marketing for InfiniCon Systems.

"The HDMP-2840's performance, combined with RedSwitch's proven ability to deliver a total switching solution, was essential for InfiniCon to provide advanced shared I/O solutions to our customers".

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