ACADEMIA

Finisar has partnered with Emulex and Third I/O Inc. in an industry-first technology demonstration of 1.5 million IOPS in a single server benchmark test at Supercomputing 2008. Powered by Finisar's new Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite 3.0, this demonstration is unique as it is the first time a single server has confirmed I/O performance as fast as 1.5 million IOPS to a Fibre Channel storage network. High IOP generation tools provide network equipment vendors and data center administrators with an extremely cost-effective means of stressing their systems to find the limits of performance without having to spend big dollars on computing equipment. This demonstration is the industry's first to achieve 1.5 million IOPS on a single server, representing the lowest cost, highest performance solution available today. Previous attempts at stress testing used tools that did not allow for write/read/compare data integrity testing at 1.5 million IOPS. Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite is uniquely capable of generating over 1.5 million IOPS while at the same time checking the data for integrity. With the new 3.0 release of Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite, Finisar is introducing a next-generation test tool suite that provides complete I/O generation, data and signal integrity verification, stress testing, performance benchmarking, and remote management capabilities. These critical features allow test and validation engineers to develop higher-quality products in a shorter time frame, for faster time to market. The test tool suite is ideal for companies developing servers, switches, Host Bus Adapters (HBA), and other storage equipment. "Finisar's Medusa Labs benchmark demonstrates a technology breakthrough in the IOPS achieved on a single server and it highlights the critical I/O performance and features Emulex's LightPulse 8Gb/s Host Bus Adapters provide, such as support for the Message-Signaled Interrupts eXtended (MSI-X) standard," said Taufik Ma, vice president of product marketing at Emulex Corporation. "We have used Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite in the validation and optimization of the performance of our products for several years and thoroughly trust their expertise."