APPLICATIONS

Users Now Have Access to 20Gb Cluster-to-Storage Bandwidth: QLogic today announced certification of its InfiniBand adapters and switches with DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Architecture (S2A) native InfiniBand, high-performance storage arrays. DataDirect Networks is a leading data infrastructure provider for the most extreme, highest performance computing environments in the world and delivers more aggregate throughput to the Top500 Supercomputers than all other vendors combined, powering six of the world's Top10 and 48 of the Top100. This certification gives customers access to high performance computing (HPC) clusters and storage environments capable of delivering 20Gb InfiniBand cluster-to-storage bandwidth. "Demand for highly scalable, robust and consistent performance on a single system is fueling the adoption of native InfiniBand with many of our HPC customers," said Dave Fellinger, CTO of DataDirect Networks. "DataDirect Networks' native InfiniBand storage solutions with QLogic InfiniBand adapters and switches, is a great option for governments and enterprises that have extremely high bandwidth requirements for server-to-server and storage communication. This means users can deploy a cutting-edge, yet proven and stable single-wire solution for their cluster computing and storage needs." "DataDirect Networks has been a key member of the QLogic HPCtrack Alliance," said Joe Kimpler, director of business alliances, QLogic Corp. "With this certification, HPC customers now have access to end-to-end, native InfiniBand solutions from the server through the fabric to storage." With more than 160 petabytes installed worldwide, DataDirect Networks' S2A solutions, combined with QLogic InfiniBand adapters and switches, can help solve today's most challenging high performance storage requirements, including reducing simulation computational times and checkpoint cycle times, providing cost-effective, high-speed "scratch" storage and capturing and serving massive amounts of digital content. DataDirect Networks' flagship eighth generation product, the S2A9900, manages 1.2 petabytes in only two floor tiles and delivers sustained throughput of up to six gigabytes per second for both writes and reads, per appliance. In a cluster formation, S2A platforms with QLogic InfiniBand infrastructure can deliver more than 100 gigabytes per second of throughput in leading HPC environments today. QLogic InfiniBand Adapters -- Run Faster, Scale Higher with TrueScale ASIC Platform Backed by an industry-best, three-year warranty, QLogic 7200 Series adapters deliver industry-leading 20Gb DDR InfiniBand performance in a cluster interconnect, allowing organizations to gain maximum advantage and return on their investment by driving up the utilization of high performance computing infrastructure. The 7200 Series, based on the QLogic TrueScale DDR ASIC platform, is designed from the ground up to provide HPC cluster interconnectivity with the highest messaging rate and lowest latency available. QLogic 7200 Series InfiniBand adapters are the first to deliver up to 26 million messages per second between computing nodes at low scalable latencies. With a low-power design, the 7200 Series is environmentally friendly and highly reliable. The 7200 Series is based on the OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) and has been certified with all major independent software vendors (ISVs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) for plug-and-play interoperability. QLogic SilverStorm 9000 Series -- Maximizes Cluster Connectivity, Minimizes Data Center Costs QLogic SilverStorm 9000 Series multi-protocol fabric directors support high performance computing, database clustering and grid utility computing applications. The SilverStorm 9000 Series maximizes cluster and grid computing interconnect performance while simplifying and reducing data center costs. The director leverages the latest InfiniBand-based technologies to provide industry-leading port densities, throughput performance, and ultra low latency. Incorporating the innovative Virtual I/O Controller (VIC) technology, the SilverStorm 9000 Series enables hosts on InfiniBand fabrics to transparently access either Fibre Channel or Ethernet networks or both. VIC technology eliminates the cost and complexity of running multiple server physical connections for storage, network, and inter-processor communications and allows each virtual network type to scale independently over a "single wire" connection.