SCIENCE

Capitalizing on its leadership position in Quad Data Rate (QDR) InfiniBand and 10Gb Ethernet solutions, QLogic has announced the QLogic 12400, a turnkey gateway that links InfiniBand clusters to the Ethernet cloud. This 26-port, QDR 40Gb/second InfiniBand gateway with six 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) ports provides seamless connectivity between an organization's Ethernet infrastructure and InfiniBand networks, resulting in high-speed cloud access for high performance computing (HPC) resources.

With three times as many 10GbE ports as the nearest competitive alternative, the QLogic 12400 gateway implementation maximizes Ethernet bandwidth and message rates while delivering low end-to-end latency. The QLogic 12400 provides the necessary 40Gb/sec bandwidth for high-throughput HPC applications, and with an internal fabric capacity of 2.2Tb/sec, the QLogic 12400 provides superior performance for even the most demanding HPC challenges.

"More and more organizations are looking for ways to cost-effectively provide transparent access between their HPC clusters and Ethernet infrastructure and gain greater access to cloud computing resources," said Jesse Parker, vice president and general manager, Network Solutions Group, QLogic. "QLogic has responded by delivering the 12400, which leverages our industry-leading InfiniBand expertise into the Ethernet infrastructure. By providing three times as many 10GbE ports as competitive solutions in a turnkey product, the QLogic 12400 delivers significant savings by reducing complexity and eliminating the need for host-based gateways."

"IT administrators are finding it imperative to provide their clustered file systems with cost-effective, high performance access across their entire organization," said Stuart Miniman, senior analyst, Wikibon. "Since these organizations are working with an average of about six shelves or more of networked storage and each shelf requires two 10GbE ports, the QLogic 12400 is able to provide all the necessary high speed Ethernet connectivity in a single device. By streamlining 10GbE networking with one third the hardware of other solutions, QLogic cuts down on costs, points of failure and points of management."

Available next quarter, the 1 rack unit (1RU) QLogic 12400 offers a wide variety of key features and benefits including:

--  Transparent, high performance access to shared or centralized Ethernet resources for improved time-to-solution

--  Virtual NIC architecture enables simple, turnkey installation and operation

--  Virtual Fabrics provide a unique class and quality of service for each traffic type for optimal fabric performance and resource utilization

--  Plug-and-play installation and operation to minimize operational costs

--  Fully compliant with InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) v1.2.1 specification, ensuring the ability to interoperate with all other IBTA-compliant devices

--  Embedded subnet manager for deployment flexibility

--  Enhanced availability and serviceability through redundant and removable power/cooling