INDUSTRY

Topspin Communications, today announced that it has been selected by Hitachi, Ltd. to provide its industry-leading, Infiniband-based server switching products as part of Hitachi's BladeSymphony blade server product line. The combined solution will deliver a compelling return-on-investment (ROI) for Hitachi customers. "Topspin is a recognized leader in the market and will be a significant part of Hitachi's success for delivering an alternative approach to proprietary bladed utility computing solutions," said Masahiro Kitano, executive general manager of Enterprise Server Division, Hitachi, Ltd. "By combining the powerful scale-out capabilities of Hitachi's blade server solutions with Topspin's best-of-breed technology and proven track record of customer successes, we are able to offer customers complete and innovative solutions to improve server performance and generate revenue." Through this agreement, Hitachi will be able to leverage Topspin's complete server switching product line, including the Topspin 120 and Topspin 270 InfiniBand Switches, Topspin 90 and Topspin 360 I/O Chassis, Topspin Ethernet and Fibre Channel gateways, and Topspin 10Gbps Host Channel Adapters. The combination of Hitachi's blade server technology and Topspin's server switching product line offers Hitachi's blade server customers the following core value propositions: -- The compelling performance of Topspin InfiniBand allows blade servers to be clustered to match the performance previously relegated to high-end platforms at a fraction of the cost. InfiniBand is a standard server interconnect and I/O technology designed to address the needs of computing platforms for increased performance, higher scalability, and improved manageability. -- Dramatic cost reduction by consolidating multiple server I/O elements through a single interconnect fabric using the unique multifabric I/O capabilities of Topspin's Server Switching products. This allows for significant cost reductions by eliminating adapters, cables, and Ethernet or Fibre Channel switch ports. This savings alone is often enough to pay for the Topspin components outright. "We are pleased to be selected by Hitachi," said Patrick Conte, vice president Worldwide Sales and Field Operations, Topspin Communications. "Topspin solutions are seeing rapid adoption in both the high performance technical computing and enterprise grid computing markets. We are excited to work with Hitachi, and our distributor Nissho Electronics Corporation, to extend these benefits to additional markets."