INTERCONNECTS

Certified interoperability of over 50 applications listed in the QLogic HPC interoperability guide: QLogic today announced a collaboration with 40 HPC vendors to validate InfiniBand network interoperability with over 50 different vertical applications, middleware, storage systems, cables and optics necessary to configure an HPC cluster. QLogic and other industry leaders are collaborating to address the need for systematic certification of product interoperability and performance optimization to form pre-qualified HPC solutions. The results are published in the QLogic HPC Interoperability Guide and downloadable at its Web site. "Today's HPC environment is becoming increasingly complex; a typical HPC solution stack includes applications, server and storage hardware, interconnections, multi-layers of management software, and file systems," said Jie Wu, research manager, technical computing, IDC. "Recognizing the challenges faced by end users, QLogic sees the pressing need for solutions that are complete, well supported, and tuned. By building an HPC ecosystem with key industry players on board, QLogic is taking a holistic approach to address some of the major issues facing the market such as interoperability and consistency of the technologies, performance optimization of the applications and support services." The QLogic HPC Interoperability Guide is a comprehensive resource for developers and consultants interested in providing QLogic-powered products, solutions and services to customers. The guide provides interoperability matrices that, at a glance, let users identify the certified HPC products, solutions, and services that best suit their needs. "Through our continued collaboration with the leading hardware and software vendors in the HPC industry, we are closer to achieving the cooperation and interoperability levels of more mature technologies like Fibre Channel and Ethernet," said Joe Kimpler, director of business alliances, QLogic Corp. "Every application in the QLogic HPC Interoperability Guide has been tested with QLogic InfiniBand switches and host channel adapters for interoperability so users can confidently use these 'recipes' for successful HPC implementations right now." The HPC Interoperability Guide is a key component and result of the QLogic HPCtrack program. This program was designed to provide faster access to new InfiniBand technology, to certify the interoperability of ecosystem products and to provide a basis for closer collaboration on performance optimization of multi-vendor solutions. The QLogic HPCtrack Alliance Program was designed to fit specific industry segments, targeting four major HPC sectors - government, academia, manufacturing, and oil/gas. Each has a specific ecosystem geared towards providing tailored solutions to that particular industry. User benefits include selected choices for its own segment; reduced procurement cycle and installation time; availability of pre-tuned applications, which will lead to better system utilization and faster time to market; and expanded support from members of the HPCtrack program. QLogic Networking for HPC - Run Faster, Scale Higher QLogic offers a comprehensive end-to-end portfolio of InfiniBand networking products for HPC including multi-protocol director switches, edge switches, host channel adapters (HCAs), and a complete software suite to install, operate, and maintain high performance fabrics. Delivering the industry's highest message rate, lowest MPI latency and highest effective bandwidth, QLogic InfiniBand HCAs enable MPI and TCP applications to scale to thousands of nodes with unprecedented price-performance. The most comprehensive and flexible HPC cluster interconnect fabric solutions on the market, QLogic InfiniBand switches incorporate the industry's only management tools that enable an administrator to install and boot an InfiniBand fabric in minutes, helping to satisfy the growing demand for high performance computational clusters and grids. Partners interested in more details about the HPCtrack program should contact Joe Yaworski at joseph.yaworski@qlogic.com.