Voltaire, the worldwide leader in grid backbone solutions, introduced today a full suite of InfiniBand-based switching solutions that deliver double and triple the performance of existing 10 Gbps interconnect offerings. Leveraging Double Data Rate (DDR) and 12X InfiniBand technologies, the new switches and InfiniBand adapters enable bandwidth and performance that is unparalleled in the industry. Using the same design and interchangeable components as Voltaire Grid Director switches, the solutions offer the industry’s highest performance and bandwidth of 20 to 30 Gbps for high performance grids and clusters. New DDR and 12X components can be shared between Voltaire single data rate (SDR) and DDR systems for mixed configurations, lowering the number of switch-to-switch connections and increasing the total fabric capacity without sacrificing performance. Customers will value the improved performance, lower latency and the ability to use fewer switch chassis, switching chips and cables, thereby minimizing complexity and costs. “As grids in the enterprise and high performance computing clusters expand from hundreds to thousands of nodes, DDR and 12X connectivity offer an extremely high performance, yet more manageable and cost-effective solution,” said Patrick Guay, vice president, marketing, Voltaire. “This announcement extends Voltaire’s leadership position in high performance grid computing with the availability of the industry’s fastest and most powerful switch portfolio.” “The combination of director-class InfiniBand switches and DDR is an important step forward for scaling clusters and grids to multiple thousands of nodes,” said Matt Leininger, computational scientist, Sandia National Laboratories. “With 20 Gbps bandwidth, InfiniBand DDR eliminates the server I/O burdens that can occur with next generation multi-processor and dual-core processor machines.” Voltaire multi-service switches offer integrated InfiniBand, GbE and Fibre Channel connectivity and are the industry’s only solutions that allow true switching between InfiniBand, Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks. Moreover, Voltaire switches deliver comprehensive and powerful management capabilities for grids and clusters through GridVision™ InfiniBand Fabric Management Software. Voltaire solutions are deployed successfully in some of the world’s largest supercomputers and also serve as the backbone in enterprise grid environments in industries ranging from manufacturing to oil and gas exploration to financial services. Voltaire’s DDR InfiniBand switching solutions are backward-compatible and fully interoperate with existing 10 Gbps InfiniBand fabrics protecting customers’ existing investments in InfiniBand-based clusters and grids. Breaking Through Performance Barriers with 30 Gbps InfiniBand Los Alamos National Laboratories selected Voltaire Grid Director ISR 9096 multi-service switches with 12X InfiniBand to deliver 30 Gbps performance for a large HPC cluster that will be used for developing and optimizing advanced supercomputing applications. The system also uses IBM’s latest 16-processor p575 servers running the Linux operating system and IBM 12X Galaxy host channel adapters. “The National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos and the Tri-Labs have been proponents of InfiniBand since its inception. We see this technology and its future potential as helping to enable NNSA to fulfill its national defense mission,” said Stephen Poole, Advanced Architectures Team, Los Alamos National Laboratories. “This technology will also allow for increasingly larger systems which will support improved predictive simulation science on a national scale. The latest system we have from IBM and Voltaire is the next step down that path.” Availability 12X capability for Voltaire Grid Director switches is available today. DDR capability will be available for Voltaire Grid Director switches in December 2005. The Voltaire Grid Switch ISR 9024D, a new 24-port DDR InfiniBand switch, will be available in Q1 2006. Voltaire HCAs with DDR support are available today. Voltaire solutions are available through OEMs and resellers. Voltaire has OEM agreements with leading vendors IBM, HP and SGI and joint sales relationships with Sun, NEC and Hitachi.