Mellanox 40Gb/s InfiniBand Solutions Enable China’s First Petascale System

InfiniBand Momentum on the China Top100 Supercomputers List Continues With 192 Percent Annual Growth; All Connected With Mellanox Performance-Leading Interconnect Solutions

Mellanox Technologies today announced that its 40Gb/s InfiniBand adapters and switch solutions enable the fastest supercomputer in the China Top100, National University of Defense Technology’s (NUDT) “TianHe” – the first Petascale system in Asia. Furthermore, Mellanox InfiniBand solutions provide the highest system efficiency and utilization as reported in the China Top100 2009 list. Mellanox InfiniBand demonstrates up to 92 percent system utilization, allowing users to maximize their return on investment for their high-performance computing server and storage infrastructure. This year’s Top100 list reveals that InfiniBand is the only industry-standard interconnect solution showing growth; up 192 percent, with 38 systems, compared to the previous 2008 list.

Mellanox ConnectX InfiniBand adapters and switch systems based on its InfiniScale III and IV switch silicon provide the scalable, low-latency and power-efficient interconnect for China’s fastest supercomputer systems. Mellanox end-to-end 40Gb/s InfiniBand solutions deliver the highest 40Gb/s based system efficiency on the list, which is being used by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) for atmospheric and weather forecasting and simulations.

“We are pleased to see the broad adoption of Mellanox’s leading end-to-end InfiniBand connectivity in the China Top100 supercomputers list, as well as connecting the first Petascale system in Asia,” said Eyal Waldman, president, chairman and CEO of Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox superior InfiniBand solutions combine performance, scalability and efficiency with industry-leading power consumption and reliability to deliver maximum return on investment for the world’s leading research facilities, educational centers, cloud computing and green data centers.”

Published once a year and publicly available at http://www.samss.org.cn the China Top100 list ranks China’s most powerful computer systems according to the Linpack benchmark rating system.

Highlights of InfiniBand usage on the China Top100 2009 list include:

  • Mellanox InfiniBand connects the fastest supercomputer in China, the first systems to provide Petascale capability in Asia
  • Mellanox InfiniBand interconnect products connect 38 of the world’s fastest supercomputers in China, including 5 of the top 10 most prestigious positions (#1, #2, #3, #7, and #8)
  • Mellanox InfiniBand provides the highest system utilization, up to 92 percent efficiency as measured by the Linpack benchmark
  • All InfiniBand-based clusters use Mellanox solutions
  • InfiniBand is the only growing industry-standard clustered interconnect in the China Top100 with a growth rate of 192 percent from 2008 to 2009, while Ethernet demonstrated a 20% decline in number of systems, and proprietary interconnect a 60% decline. None of the systems included 10GigE for server connectivity
  • Mellanox InfiniBand interconnect products present in the Top100 are used by a diverse list of applications, from large-scale, high-performance computing to commercial technical computing and enterprise data centers