Second Gen InfiniBand Reference Design Bolsters Database Apps

Targeting database and enterprise applications, the Nitro II 4X InfiniBand server blade reference platform employs the company's second-generation 10-Gb/s InfiniHost host-channel adapter (HCA) and InfiniScale switching silicon. The platform consists of 2.2-GHz Pentium 4 processor-based diskless server blades, dual 16-port 4X switches, and a 10-Gb/s backplane supporting 480 Gb/s of switching capacity in a 14-blade chassis. This is said to produce greater than three times the performance level of 700 or 800 MHz speeds offered in currently available blade technologies. The server blades support up to 4 GB of memory and require no video monitor. The passive backplane uses a dual star configuration to link 12 server or I/O slots through redundant InfiniBand fabric switches. The 24 backplane connections operate at 20 Gb/s each for a total bandwidth of 480 Gb/s. And the 4U chassis enables a total of up to 96 server blades in a single rack. The switch, server blade, and passive backplane are priced at $15,000, $6,500 and $8,500 each, respectively. MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES, Santa Clara, CA. (408) 970-3400.