INTERCONNECTS

Force10 Networks today announced that the TeraScale E-Series powered the winning demonstrations at SuperComputing 2004's annual Bandwidth Challenge, including the demonstration that set a new land speed record. The Force10 TeraScale E1200 processed traffic from all Bandwidth Challenge participants with the winners collectively demonstrating 136.2 Gigabits per second of sustained throughput, more than double last year's Bandwidth Challenge total. As the 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch/router in SCinet, the conference's network, the Force10 TeraScale E1200 processed all 10 Gigabit Ethernet traffic into and out of the conference floor, including all Bandwidth Challenge entries, and provided five 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections to StorCloud. The Force10 TeraScale E-Series supported an unprecedented 44 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single chassis, providing connectivity from the exhibitor spaces to research networks around the world. Over the course of the show, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series processed more than 200 Terabytes of data or 20 times more data than the printed collections in the Library of Congress. "At SuperComputing 2004, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series demonstrated that it has the resiliency and scalability to support the most demanding, traffic-intensive networks in the world," said Andrew Feldman, vice president of marketing at Force10 Networks. "In setting a new land speed record and providing the 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbone for the Bandwidth Challenge and SCinet, the TeraScale E-Series displayed industry-leading port densities, as well as unmatched reliability in a production environment, proving once again that it is uniquely suited for high performance computing networks." The Force10 TeraScale E-Series powered a number of the winning Bandwidth Challenge entries, both through SCinet and in the research networks that were tapped to assist with the computations. The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) was awarded "Best Spirit of the Challenge" for achieving 27 Gigabits per second of sustained disk to disk real application performance. For its demonstration, SDSC relied on TeraGrid, SCinet and SuperComputing 2004's Storcloud network, all of which are anchored by the Force10 TeraScale E-Series. The California Institute of Technology, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Lab and the Fermi National Lab were also awarded for demonstrating the highest sustained throughput, 101.2 Gigabits per second, more than four times the throughput of last year's winning entry. The demonstration accessed TeraGrid and SCinet, both of which rely on the Force10 TeraScale E-Series. The University of Tokyo received an award for sustaining a single 7.2 Gigabits per second data stream across a 32,000 kilometer network, setting a new land speed record. During the course of the demonstration, the stream traversed Europe, North America and Asia. The Force10 TeraScale E-Series provided the line-rate, non-blocking switching infrastructure at several places along the data path, including ones in Amsterdam, Chicago and at the conference in Pittsburgh. An additional winning entry from the National Center for Data Mining and honorable mentions for Kyushu University and JAXA leveraged the TeraScale E-Series in the conference's network, SCinet. This year's winning Bandwidth Challenge entries demonstrated 136.2 Gigabits per second throughput, more than twice the throughput of last year's winners. With the Force10 TeraScale E1200 at the center of SCinet, all Bandwidth Challenge entries and show traffic could be processed with a single system, simplifying the show network. To meet increasing computing demands, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series supports unparalleled Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet densities and can process one billion packets per second. With built-in redundancy and non-blocking throughput, the TeraScale E-Series provides the reliability and predictability that high performance networks require. Background: Force10 Networks is the pioneer in high performance switching and routing. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10's TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world's largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit the company's website at www.force10networks.com.