INDUSTRY

SilverStorm Is First to Offer InfiniBand-to-10GbE Connectivity Using Embedded Intelligent NIC Silicon From NetXen: NetXen, Inc., a leading provider of breakthrough 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) technology and products, and SilverStorm Technologies, Inc., the leader in high-performance interconnect solutions for clustered computing, today announced that SilverStorm is using NetXen NX2031 silicon devices to implement high-performance 10GbE interfaces for its SilverStorm 9000 series of Multi-Protocol Fabric Directors. These systems deliver a total switching capacity of 11.52 Tb/s, making them the industry's highest-capacity single-chassis cluster interconnect system. The flexible 9000 series platform provides multi-protocol support using switch modules for InfiniBand SDR, InfiniBand DDR and Virtual I/O Controller modules for Fibre Channel and 10GbE. The new Ethernet Virtual I/O Controller (VIC) modules will use NetXen NX2031 Intelligent NIC devices. "Our industry-leading cluster interconnect systems are the foundation of numerous supercomputing projects and are attractive to high-performance business computing environments because of their multi-protocol support, excellent price/performance and scalability," said Russ Hawkins, CEO of SilverStorm Technologies. "Integrating high-performance 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces is a natural step in supporting our customers' need to integrate their heterogeneous networks. We chose NetXen as our 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology supplier not only because they deliver the highest performance, but also because they provide a high-density silicon solution that we could embed in our low-profile Virtual I/O Controller modules." "We are delighted that SilverStorm chose our Intelligent 10-Gigabit Ethernet NX2031 devices for their industry-leading Multi-Protocol Fabric Directors," said David Pulling, president of NetXen. "This validates our business model of supplying both silicon and complete solutions. Our highly integrated silicon enables OEMs such as SilverStorm to develop high-density solutions that extend the flexibility and performance of their interconnect systems, while expanding the reach of 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology into ultra-high-performance computing systems." The SilverStorm 9000 series of InfiniBand-based Multi-Protocol Fabric Directors is a flexible, slot-independent, chassis-based interconnect system. Chassis scale from two to 24 slots and can be populated by any combination of SDR (10 Gbps) switch modules, DDR (20 Gbps) switch modules as well as VIC modules for Fibre Channel and 10GbE. Systems can support from 12 to 432 ports in a single chassis, providing up to 11.52 Tb/s switching capacity per chassis. The 10GbE VIC modules provide up to 48 10GbE ports in a single chassis. The NetXen NX2031 Intelligent NIC is a highly integrated, fully programmable network controller that integrates two 10-gigabit links with a native x8 PCI Express (PCIe) interface. Fully programmable, NetXen NICs are field upgradeable, supporting a variety of protocols including TCP/IP, RDMA, iSCSI, and security. The NX2031 is available in a 31x31 FC-BGA package.