The Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 648 is a high-density, Quad Data Rate (QDR) IB core switch that offers capacity for up to 648 servers and storage systems. It can replace up to 152 discrete switching elements and thousands of cables in large-scale solutions, Sun reports. It is an ideal solution for cluster sizes that range from 200 servers to 5000+ servers.

QDR effectively quadruples bandwidth over the same number of Infiniband lanes. For Single Data Rate, each data lane provides 2.5 Gbps theoretical throughput, but due to data encoding techniques, 8B/10B, the actual data rate is 2.0 Gbps per lane or 8 Gbps for a 4x connection. For Dual Data Rate, the total bandwidth is 16 Gbps. QDR is the next step in bandwidth scaling over 4x lanes providing another doubling of 4x connection bandwidth to 32 Gbps.

The Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 648 is a full industry standard Infiniband switching platform. Offering a 72-port line card, with a single line card supporting 72 40 Gbps ports, the switch has capacity for 9 line cards. The line cards 72-switched Infiniband ports are realized with 24 physical connectors on the front bezel. Each 12x physical port supports 3 QDR 4x connections to the switch.

The high density 12x connectors on the 72-port line card have been optimized for use with the Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand QDR Switched NEM as part of the Sun Blade 6048 modular system. However, a splitter cable is available from Sun that provides 3 standard QSFP connectors compatible with any industry standard InfiniBand server.

The Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 648 fits into a standard 19-inch rack. With an 11u height, up to three switches can be mounted in a single rack for 1,944 4x QDR InfiniBand ports in 33 rack units. It is modular, allowing customers to start small and grow as large as 8 Sun Datacenter InifiniBand Switch 648 instances.

Following is an overview of its features:

• Supports up to 648 QDR 4x InfiniBand ports in an 11u enclosure

• A 3 stage non-blocking full clos fabric with an aggregate bandwidth of 41 Tbps. A modular chassis with up to 9 line cards, 9 fabric cards, 4 power supplies and a pair of redundant chassis management controllers.

• A high density, industry standard 12x connector and cabling system that consolidates three discrete 4x switch ports into a single 12x connector and cable.

• Support for InfiniBand adaptive routing and congestion control.

• Cable management designed to efficiently direct up to 216 cables either under the floor or up to the ceiling.

"The switch represents a breakthrough in industry-standard petascale computing fabrics, combining three major innovations," Sun states:

• 1) ultra high density supporting up to 648 4x InfiniBand ports in 11u or 1,944 4x ports in a single 19-inch rack;

• 2) a connector and cabling system that consolidates three 4x connections into a single connector and 12x cable; and

• 3) leveraging hardware-based adaptive routing, along with support for InfiniBand 1.2 congestion control to dynamically re-route traffic, alleviating congested switch ports and restricting process traffic causing congestion, eliminating hot spots in the fabric and driving maximum throughput at the lowest possible latencies."

A video entitled Sun's QDR InfiniBand Product Series: Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 648 highlights the features of the QDR IB core switch. (runs 19:49)

More Information

Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 648 Product Page

Sun Datacenter IB Switch 648 Architecture and Deployment

New Open Networking Technology and HPC Software [...read more...]

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