ACADEMIA

PathScale, developer of innovative software and hardware solutions to accelerate the performance and efficiency of Linux clusters, has certified a new four-socket system board from Supermicro Computer Inc. for use with its PathScale InfiniPath HTX InfiniBand Adapter. PathScale's certification process has validated the performance and reliability of the Supermicro H8QC8/E server board using a suite of well-known HPC applications. The Supermicro H8QC8/E and the PathScale InfiniPath interconnect are being displayed this week in the PathScale booth at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. Supermicro Computer is a San Jose, CA-based manufacturer of high-performance Intel and AMD processor-based motherboards and servers. Optimized for 1U deployments, the new Supermicro H8QC8/E is the industry's first four-socket AMD Opteron processor-based motherboard that supports the HyperTransport HTX standard. The HTX slot permits a direct connection between the processor and the PathScale InfiniPath InfiniBand interconnect to deliver the world's lowest MPI latency and highest effective bandwidth. "The new H8QC8/E demonstrates our strong commitment to serving the AMD Opteron server market with superior, innovative product designs," said Dr. Tau Leng, director of marketing and system validation at Supermicro. "We have added HTX capability to our new four-socket Opteron board to support PathScale's revolutionary InfiniPath InfiniBand interconnect and a wide selection of other HTX cards currently in development. Being the first server board supplier to offer HTX in a four socket design is strong evidence of Supermicro's technology leadership in the AMD Opteron market." The PathScale InfiniPath adapter integrated with the Supermicro H8QC8/E motherboard enables system integrators to build highly scalable clusters using a standard InfiniBand fabric with an unprecedented low latency of 1.32 microseconds as measured with standard Ohio State MPI benchmarks. The highly pipelined, cut-through design of InfiniPath results in the industry's lowest latency and highest message rate for MPI applications. The PathScale InfiniPath hardware and software is the first commercial grade InfiniBand solution that enables users to reliably and efficiently solve their most challenging computational problems. "PathScale and Supermicro have developed breakthrough technologies that will allow us to deliver the most scalable, highest performance, lowest latency Linux cluster solutions," said Lalit Jain, CEO of Angstrom Microsystems, a leading integrator of AMD Opteron systems based in Boston, MA. "Our customers are expressing significant interest in the unprecedented performance made possible by the combination of AMD Opteron processors and the PathScale InfiniPath InfiniBand interconnect. This new four-socket Opteron HTX motherboard from Supermicro gives us the ability to fulfill that demand with our Titan64 AMD Opteron-based SuperBlade servers." The combined Supermicro / PathScale technologies allow integrators to implement Linux clusters consisting of hundreds to thousands of nodes with up to eight processors each based on AMD's dual-core Opteron processors. Typical end-user customers for such clusters include large enterprises and scientific research institutions that require the best possible scaling and performance to run large simulation and modeling codes and other demanding, processor-intensive applications. "No one at PathScale is surprised with how rapidly market demand is expanding for the HyperTransport architecture since it is enabling PathScale to deliver far lower latency and higher performance for applications deployed on Linux clusters," said Art Goldberg, COO of PathScale. "Supermicro is a real innovator in this market segment and therefore an ideal OEM server board supplier for the 27 AMD Opteron system providers around the globe that are currently reselling the PathScale InfiniPath InfiniBand interconnect." Availability The PathScale InfiniPath interconnect is available immediately and can be ordered from systems vendors participating in the PathScale FastPath reseller program as described at its Web site. More details on InfiniPath are available at: its Web site.