The Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 72 joins the Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 648 and Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 36 in Sun's third generation family of InfiniBand (IB) switches. The one rack unit (RU) switch is a complete, ultra-slim, ultra-dense switch fabric solution for Sun server clusters up to 72 Quad Data Rate (QDR) IB nodes. Most importantly, the switch integrates with the Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand QDR Switched Network Express Module, scaling up to over 576 end nodes. This makes it easier to completely assemble a high performance computing system, with compute, networking and storage.

"For the first time ever, the Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 72 lets you aggregate up to 72 QDR 4x ports into a single 1RU switch and multiple switches can be combined to cost effectively link up to 576 servers," commented Sun VP of Americas Systems Practice Marc Hamilton. "For larger clusters, the Sun InfiniBand Switch 648 supports up to 648 servers with a single switch, or up to 5184 servers in a full non-blocking fabric using eight 648 port switches."

The 72-switched IB ports are realized with 24 physical connectors on the front bezel. Each 12x physical port supports 3 QDR 4x connections to the switch.

Features:

Support for up to 72 QDR 4x IB ports in an 1RU enclosure

Full "fat tree" topology implemented with six 36-port QDR IB switches. This switch affords extreme density and cable aggregation for Sun Blade and Sun Fire servers and storage. No additional switching elements are needed for IB clusters of up to 72 nodes.

A 3 stage non-blocking full clos fabric with an aggregate bandwidth of 4.6 Tbps (full duplex)

The switch includes a complete 2-tier switch fabric, comprised of six 36 port QDR IB switch chips. Traffic is carried at full QDR (40Gbps) from server to server across the fabric.

Supports industry standard 12x IB connectors

External connectors on the switch use the InfiniBand Trade Association's (IBTA) 12x CXP connector.

Consolidated cabling system

The cabling system consolidates three discrete 4x switch ports into a single 12x connector and cable.

Embedded InfiniBand Fabric Management Module

The switch can be managed by either an embedded InfiniBand Fabric Management Module or by an external Subnet Manager (SM) when connected in large IB fabrics. In smaller clusters, the entire IB fabric can be managed by the integrated InfiniBand Management module or by a host-based InfiniBand Subnet Manager.

Interoperates seamlessly with the Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand QDR Switched Network Express Module (NEM)

Acts as core or spine switch stage in hierarchical switch topologies for clusters using the Sun Blade 6048 Modular System. When used in conjunction with the Sun Blade 6048 modular system, QDR IB clusters of up to 576 servers can be created, replacing 17+ U solutions and hundreds of cables with one third the number of cables.

Redundant power and cooling

Provisioned with redundant power and cooling for high availability, the Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 72 is intended for use in demanding data center environments.

Environment Requirements

The Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 72 can be introduced into server or storage cluster environments which are capable of supporting QDR IB fabric connections. Typically, the minimum requirement for server or storage devices is support for PCI Express compliant devices.

Designed for mid- to large-scale IB cluster deployments. Markets served include clustered databases, HPC-supercomputing, data center virtualization, and latency sensitive market data distribution. Since its modular, the switch allows customers to start small and grow as large as eight Sun Datacenter InifiniBand Switch 72 instances supporting 576 servers.

"Recently, Oracle put their weight behind Sun's QDR technology in Exadata v2, incorporating the Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 36," Hamilton noted. "Today, Sun further expands our family of high performance fabrics offering with the Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 72."

More Information

Sun Datacenter Infiniband Switch 72

Sun's InfiniBand switches

Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand Quad Data Rate Switched Network Express Module

Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 36 [...read more...]

		fullsource
Print Email Current Profile Archive Blog Generate newsletter