SCIENCE

BLADE Network Technologies (BLADE) has announced that the RackSwitch G8264, the first single-chip 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) top-of-rack switch to deliver more than one terabit of low-latency throughput to the datacenter.

BLADE's delivery of the RackSwitch G8264 marks the first time a single-chip switch is available for terabit-scale deployment of 10GbE. Aimed at fueling mainstream adoption of 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet for the enterprise datacenter, the RackSwitch G8264 is priced at an industry-pacesetting $350 per 10GbE port with 40GbE connectivity at just $1,400 per port.

With 64-10GbE ports, up to four-40GbE ports and 1.28 terabits of non-blocking throughput, the RackSwitch G8264 is designed for HPC clusters, cloud computing, algorithmic trading and other I/O-intensive and highly virtualized workloads. Its ultra-efficient single-chip switch fabric ensures deterministic "fair" latency and consistent throughput across all port combinations. This new top-of-rack switch extends BLADE's award-winning RackSwitch family that brings unprecedented speed and intelligence to the edge of the network.

RackSwitch G8264 advantages include:

• 1st single-chip Ethernet top-of-rack switch exceeding 1Tb bandwidth.
• 1st top of rack switch with true 40GbE.
• Best-in-class datacenter features, including VMready for VM-aware network virtualization.
• 1st standards-compliant, non-proprietary TRILL platform.
• Lossless, deterministic low-latency, low power, low cost.

"BLADE is proud to break the terabit barrier in a single-chip design with the RackSwitch G8264," said Vikram Mehta, president and CEO, BLADE Network Technologies. "Our new switch is designed for today's most demanding requirements at the datacenter edge to interconnect highly utilized servers equipped with 10 Gigabit Ethernet and provide seamless migration to 40 Gigabit upstream networks."

BLADE's RackSwitch G8264 provides full interoperability with multivendor network environments that support the IEEE 802.3ba 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet standard as validated using Ixia test equipment. With the accelerating adoption of 10GbE on servers and storage systems, higher speed uplinks are required to handle the increased network bandwidth.
40GbE is the next logical step.

Industry Comments

"Today's enterprise datacenters require massive amounts of bandwidth, with 10 Gigabit Ethernet deployments growing rapidly and 40 Gigabit Ethernet is the next step," said Lucinda Borovick, vice president, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure and Datacenter Networks, IDC. "To ensure that edge networks can meet today's bandwidth needs, today's top-of-rack switches must combine top performance with virtualization-aware intelligence and datacenter-specific capabilities. For datacenters that are increasingly deploying servers equipped with 10GbE, BLADE's RackSwitch G8264 is an impressive form factor at a market-leading price point."

"Netezza has been deploying BLADE Network Technologies' high-speed data fabric networking to enable our Netezza TwinFin appliance to reset the price-performance bar for the data warehouse and analytics market," said John Metzger, vice president, product strategy at Netezza. "BLADE's new 10/40G RackSwitch G8264 is raising the bar for those looking for even greater levels of performance at the lowest total cost of ownership for their data-driven intelligence."

"Today's datacenters are generating more and more data, which calls for a new generation of powerful datacenter edge networking that can deliver information as rapidly and efficiently as possible," said John Abbott, chief analyst, The 451 Group. "BLADE was one of the first vendors to lower the cost of 10 Gigabit Ethernet blade switches down to practical levels back in 2007, and has since made some significant advances in network virtualization. The new 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet switch will further strengthen their portfolio."