Sun is introducing its Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand Quad Data Rate (QDR) Switched Network Express Module (NEM) and the Sun InfiniBand Dual port 4x DDR PCIe Fabric Expansion Module (FEM). Expected to be generally available this summer, the Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand QDR Switched NEM can be connected to from a variety of Sun Blade server modules via the Sun InfiniBand Dual port 4x DDR PCIe FEM.

InfiniBand is a low-latency, high-bandwidth server interconnect and shared I/O technology that offers a more efficient way to connect storage, communications networks and server clusters together, while delivering an I/O infrastructure that produces the efficiency, reliability and scalability that data centers demand. Standards for InfiniBand are governed by InfiniBand Trade Association or IBTA.

QDR or Quad Data Rate represents a signaling rate of 40 Gigabits per second. Previous generation products supported Dual Data Rate (DDR) and Single Data Rate (SDR) at 20 Gbps and 10 Gbps respectively. QDR InfiniBand products can operate in mixed product environments with SDR and DDR products. InfiniBand links auto-negotiate to establish the speed of the connection.

What these new upcoming Sun products boast are Quad Data Rate InfiniBand which delivers up to 80 Gb/s bandwidth (full-duplex) per server connection and the ability to enable Sun Blade server modules to be connected to an in-chassis InfiniBand fabric.

When combined with the Sun Blade 6048 chassis and the Sun Blade X6275 server module, the Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand QDR Switched NEM provides the industry's only chassis-integrated leaf switch supporting QDR InfiniBand. The solution enables support for over 5,184 node clusters for scalability critical to petascale deployments, Sun reports.

Features and Benefits

• QDR NEM supports up to 24 server nodes per Sun Blade 6048 shelf: When used with the Sun Blade X6275 server module, the QDR NEM supports up to 24 server nodes per shelf. This features provides users with both a cost and space efficient building block for high performance compute clusters.

• QDR NEM contains two 36 port QDR switch chips: The QDR NEM acts as a leaf switch, which can be used stand alone or in a switch hierarchy. This feature enables very large InfiniBand clusters to be constructed using a minimal number of external switching components. Clusters of up to 5,184 server nodes can be constructed in a two tiered network.

• QDR NEM utilizes 12x CXP InfiniBand connectors. External connections from the NEM utilize the InfiniBand Trade Association's (IBTA) standard 12x CXP Connector. The connector and related cable system consolidates three InfiniBand 4x connections over a single cable, resulting in a 3:1 reduction of the number of cables required to deploy an InfiniBand cluster.

• QDR NEM provides 24 pass thru 1 Gb Ethernet connections per Sun Blade 6048 shelf: The QDR NEM provides two pass thru ethernet connections per server module. This feature eliminates the need for additional hardware for deployments requiring both QDR InfiniBand and Gigabit ethernet connections to each server node.

• QDR NEM supports both Clos and mesh topologies: The QDR NEM contains two embedded 36 port InfiniBand leaf switches. Internal to the NEM, there are nine 4x InfiniBand connections between these leaf switches. The NEM is architected to minimize cabling requirements in both Clos and mesh topologies.

• QDR NEM supports Quad Data Rate InfiniBand: Support for non-blocking QDR InfiniBand topologies. This feature provides aggregate bandwidth of 1,536 Gb/sec per Sun Blade 6048 shelf

• DDR FEM enables QDR NEM to be utilized as leaf switch for InfiniBand clusters utilizing variety of Sun Blade server modules: The DDR FEM provides InfiniBand connectivity to the QDR NEM for blades supporting FEM. This feature enables deployment of a variety of Sun Blade server modules in an InfiniBand cluster, including a mix of blade types on the same Sun Blade 6048 shelf.

More Information

Sun Networking Technologies

Sun Blade Servers

Sun Blade 6048 Modular System

Sun Launches Open Network Systems With Xeon 5500-Based Servers

IB QDR and Nehalem (updated) - from the blog of Ted H. Kim [...read more...]

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