INDUSTRY

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) announced today that it will demonstrate the InfiniBand high-performance computing (HPC) interconnect at the Intel Developers Forum (IDF). The demonstration builds on NCSA's previous work with applications that use the first InfiniBand solutions utilizing the Message Passing Interface (MPI) protocol, the industry standard protocol for HPC implementations, and the Virtual Machine Interface (VMI), developed at NCSA to support messaging across high performance networks. The demonstration features clustered Linux systems running MPI applications and NCSA's VMI software. VMI is a middleware communication layer that supports MPI codes in a cluster environment and can support different interconnect technologies without having to recompile the application. The InfiniBand architecture, combined with VMI, is an interconnect for HPC clusters that provides a low-latency, high-performance interconnect infrastructure. "Our work with Intel has offered us the opportunity to build high-performance clusters using industry-standard InfiniBand technology on an Open Source software base," said Rob Pennington, director of NCSA's Computing and Data Management Directorate. "Our demonstration of InfiniBand HPC clusters in action is important because it offers a glimpse of a new generation of high-performance computing interconnect." The InfiniBand cluster demonstration is a product of ongoing work between NCSA and Intel to deliver InfiniBand architecture-based HPC solutions. NCSA has recently joined Intel's InfiniBand evaluation program to continue its work on InfiniBand fabric connectivity, including delivery of a 10 gigabit per second-based InfiniBand cluster. "InfiniBand architecture is emerging as the leading HPC interconnect." said Jim Pappas, director of initiative marketing for Intel's Enterprise Platform Group. "NCSA has proven to be a leader in delivery of HPC solutions on InfiniBand architecture. This IDF's demonstration provides positive momentum from early MPI demonstrations of the past. We look forward to working with NCSA on its further developments through our evaluation program." InfiniBand architecture is a new I/O technology that improves the way data and compute centers will be built, deployed and managed. The 1.0 InfiniBand specifications were completed in October 2000. Solutions based on InfiniBand architecture are expected in the market early next year. Intel and IBM are co-chairs of the InfiniBand Trade Association.