Sun will incorporate the open interface standard of InfiniBand's high-speed switch fabric architecture which offers advanced features for I/O interconnect into future server, software and storage products. The technology can be integrated with existing environments and provide improved application performance, scalability, resource utilization and management capabilities. Future InfiniBand-based platforms are expected to include Sun's next-generation, horizontally scalable blade servers expected in 2004 and future vertically scalable enterprise servers.

InfiniBand's new architecture is designed to create a more efficient way to connect storage, communications networks and server clusters together while delivering an I/O infrastructure that will produce the efficiency, reliability and scalability that data centers require. With link speeds from 2.5 Gbps to 30 Gbps, InfiniBand is designed to efficiently integrate with Ethernet and Fibre Channel infrastructure. InfiniBand's high-bandwidth, low-latency fabric can offer significant improvement to application performance.

"Sun will provide a complete platform for the next-generation data center, anchored by SolarisTM Operating Environment (Solaris OE), with significant enhancements in I/O architecture, systems and network protocol interfaces using remote direct memory access, and N1 for management. Future InfiniBand-equipped blade servers will be just one of Sun's many stepping stones to virtualized computing where previously siloed resources behave and are managed as a single, powerful system," said Neil Knox, executive vice president of Sun's Volume Systems Products.

Sun expects applications (such as databases, directories, application servers, JavaTM 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EETM) environments, ERP and CRM) running on these systems to show significantly improved performance. Sun also plans to integrate InfiniBand into storage virtualization and aggregation products and controllers.

"Infiniband's standard low latency and high bandwidth capabilities create new opportunities in the software architecture of the data center," said John Fowler, chief technology officer of Sun Software. "The Solaris OE will transparently deliver those advantages to existing applications as well as provide interfaces for development of new applications. Sun plans to use InfiniBand to enhance our Sun ONE products for high-performance, continuously available Web services."

Sun has pioneered numerous I/O technologies, clustering and system advancements that improve the efficiency of data centers, from supporting and implementing standards such as Gigabit Ethernet, ATM, CompactPCI, PCI, SCSI and Fibre Channel to developing the recently announced Sun FireTM Link hardware high-performance interconnect for clustering high-end systems.

Sun's leading role with the IBTA began in 1999 as one of seven founders. As a steering committee member, the company participates in all IBTA technical committees and is current co-chair of the Link Working Group and Marketing Working Group. In May, 2000, Sun acquired Dolphin Interconnect Solutions, Inc., a developer of high-performance interconnects, allowing Sun to develop higher-performance and lower-cost interconnects for its server and storage systems.

Sun is also participating in the OpenGroup's Interconnect Software Consortium, which is defining UNIXR systems APIs for InfiniBand and similar transports.

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