Voltaire® 40Gb/s InfiniBand Switch Module for SSI-based Blade Systems
Features & Benefits
- The industry's first SSI-compliant InfiniBand switch for blade server systems
- Highest performing I/O option for blade systems
- Up to 40Gb/s performance for scale-out computing fabrics and cloud environments
- Ultra low latency: Less than 100 nanoseconds blade to blade connectivity
- Scales to thousands of nodes with a single tier of switches using HyperScale™ architecture
- Built-in high availability
- Ideal for scientific, commercial HPC and enterprise applications
SSI-compliant InfiniBand Switch Modules for Blade Server Systems
The Server System Infrastructure (SSI) Forum has announced new standards for blade-based server components to propagate the benefits of blade-based servers. As the fastest growing segment of the server market, blade-based servers offer significant advantages to companies that need to expand their computing power while reducing IT costs. By standardizing critical components of blade-based server systems, the SSI Forum enables innovation and helps companies benefit from the full potential of blade-based server technology.
The Voltaire 40Gb/s InfiniBand Switch Module is the first InfiniBand blade switch to comply with SSI specifications and ensure interoperability across industry-standard blade computing systems.
Combined with Voltaire’s external director-class InfiniBand switches and its advanced fabric management software (UFM™), the 40Gb/s InfiniBand Switch Module provides the highest performing I/O throughput option for SSI-based blade systems, and delivers the industry’s highest bandwidth and lowest latency switching solution. With the 40Gb/s InfiniBand Switch Module, users can fully exploit the benefits of blade systems, including the IBM BladeCenter architecture.
Delivering on the Demand for Higher Bandwidth
Voltaire’s 40 Gb/s InfiniBand Switch Module delivers superior performance for applications that demand the highest bandwidth and lowest latency available in today’s market.
Multi-core processing environments, I/O convergence, and cloud services are fueling the need for higher bandwidth solutions. As demand for mission-critical and real-time applications continue to grow, servers must offer higher processing capabilities in order to meet and exceed requirements for performance and scalability.
The powerful combination of an industry-leading blade set and Voltaire’s InfiniBand technology provides an ideal solution for scale-out computing fabrics for data centers, high performance computing and cloud environments.
Key Capabilities
- Provides InfiniBand QDR connectivity between the server platform’s high performance blade servers and external InfiniBand fabrics in non-blocking designs—all on a single device
- Accommodates performance-optimized fabric designs utilizing a single blade chassis or stacking multiple blade system chassis - without requiring an external InfiniBand switch
- Includes 14 internal ports that are connected to the blades (HSECs) and 16 external ports, providing full connectivity for 14 blades installed in the blade system chassis
- Negotiates data rates automatically, ensuring an upgrade path from SDR to DDR and DDR to QDR
- Delivers four times more bandwidth per port while saving almost 300% in energy consumption over bladed systems that use 10 Gigabit Ethernet for the interconnect
