Voltaire Introduces 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switching in Grid Director(TM) Platform for "No Compromise" Data Center Connectivity.First Solution to Create Multiple Virtual LAN Also called a "VLAN," it is a logical subgroup within a local area network that is created via software rather than manually moving cables in the wiring closet. It combines user stations and network devices into a single unit regardless of the physical LAN segment they are attached to and and SAN Networks Spanning InfiniBand, Ethernet and Fibre Channel BILLERICA, Mass. -- Voltaire, the worldwide leader in grid backbone solutions, today announced that it will now offer 10 Gigabit Ethernet An Ethernet standard that transmits at 1 Gbps. Used mostly to connect high-end workstations and servers as well as for network backbones, Gigabit Ethernet transmits full duplex from point to point using switches and half duplex in a shared environment (CSMA/CD) using a hub. (GbE) switching capabilities in its Grid Director multi-service switches. With 10GbE switching, customers can take advantage of the high bandwidth, low latency Low latency allows human-unnoticeable delays between an input being processed and the corresponding output providing real time characteristics. This can be especially important for internet connections utilizing services such as online gaming and VOIP - VOIP is not as important as characteristics of InfiniBand while at the same time seamlessly integrate into existing LAN/WAN LAN/WAN Local Area Network/Wide Area Network network infrastructures with no performance penalties. The integrated multi-fabric switch design provides new efficiencies and cost savings for customers. "Voltaire Grid Director switches offer customers a ano compromise' data center," said Patrick Guay, senior vice president of marketing, Voltaire. "Rather than debate about which technology to use, Voltaire has taken the approach of developing solutions which maximize application performance regardless of the physical connection. IT can now use InfiniBand - the best backplane technology on the market - within the server rack and Ethernet for LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. connectivity, without sacrificing any performance and using a uniform set of management tools and protocols. This frees IT to focus on meeting the performance, scalability and reliability requirements of their applications rather than worrying about the underlying technology." Similar to the way in which server virtualization (1) Running applications in separate, isolated partitions within a single server. The "virtual machine" method can run different operating systems simultaneously, whereas the "OS virtualization" method runs applications for only one operating system (see virtual machine and OS software partitions physical servers into logical entities which improve efficiency, Voltaire switches allow users to construct multiple, logical networks which have the ability to span Ethernet, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel. This is an industry first that also improves the effectiveness and ultimately the performance and manageability of applications. Leveraging Voltaire's recently announced GridVision Enterprise[TM] service oriented infrastructure Service Oriented Infrastructure or SOI ([pronounced "sō-i" or "es-ō-i"]) is a system for describing IT infrastructure as a service. The underlying principles go back to, among others, Mainframe and LDAP technologies, but SOI provides a framework or mindset making management software, virtual data centers can be formed on demand to connect any kind of physical or virtual network, storage or server resources. Voltaire solutions are deployed in many of the world's largest data centers in industries including financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , manufacturing, government and media/entertainment. "This solution blurs the line between InfiniBand and Ethernet," said Arun Taneja, analyst, The Taneja Group. "While InfiniBand continues to grow in the data center, Ethernet remains the pervasive technology for generic networking. With its Grid Director switches, Voltaire is enabling the creation of an extremely cost effective IT infrastructure that lets InfiniBand and Ethernet do what each does best and yet maintain transparency from the application perspective." Voltaire's 10 GigE switching services are provided by a new line board designed for Voltaire's 96- and 288-port Grid Director switches. Leveraging a new custom switching/routing ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. with InfiniBand and 10GbE ports, each line board switches InfiniBand and Ethernet traffic at a rate of 10 million packets per second per port and latencies of less than 1 microsecond One millionth of a second. See space/time and ohnosecond. (unit) microsecond - One millionth (10^-6) of a second. . Voltaire's unique design that embeds InfiniBand and 10 GbE core on a single chip maximizes system performance. The ASIC also enables transparent layer 2, 3, and 4+ switching, virtualization An umbrella term for enhancing a computer's ability to do work. Following are the ways virtualization is used. Hardware Virtualization Partitioning the computer's memory into separate and isolated "virtual machines" simulates multiple machines within one physical computer. and TCP/UDP TCP/UDP Transmission Control Protocol/User Datagram Protocol offload. The solution uses industry standard protocols, does not require custom software or drivers and integrates seamlessly into existing environments. "Routing InfiniBand and Ethernet and providing layer 2-4 functionality is inherently complex and typically slow and expensive if done with CPUs," said Yaron Haviv, CTO (Chief Technical Officer) The executive responsible for the technical direction of an organization. See CIO and salary survey. , Voltaire. "Voltaire has always been a leader in developing innovative technology for customers who demand the best performance. We've invested in this technology to further extend our performance leadership." Each 24 port line board supports 22 4X 10 Gb/second or 20 Gb/second InfiniBand ports and two 10 Gb/second Ethernet ports. Using a single Grid Director 288 port switch, more than 240 servers can now be connected to a high-speed InfiniBand backbone, with up to 24 aggregated 10GbE ports connected to the network and multiple Fibre Channel ports connected to external storage. The switch can be dynamically provisioned to provide multiple virtual LAN and SAN networks spanning different interfaces. To create the same density and functionality with today's 10 GbE-only switches requires a complex and expensive configuration consisting of more than ten of the industry's largest 10 GbE director switches as well as additional Fibre Channel director switches. In comparison, Voltaire's one switch solution provides new efficiencies and cost savings for customers. "Voltaire's new multi-service switch enables us to incorporate 10 Gigabit Ethernet in our InfiniBand cluster fabric," said Glenn Newell, IT Manager, Synopsys, a world leader in semiconductor design software. "This allows us to move data to and from multiple sources and locations outside of our fabric at high speeds. As a result, we can run more jobs in less time." The 10 GbE/InfiniBand line board for Voltaire Grid Director switches will be available in Q2 2007. About Voltaire Voltaire is the worldwide leader in grid backbone solutions for networked computing in the next generation data center. Voltaire's integrated family of switching hardware and network virtualization Monitoring and managing an entire network from a single network administrator's console. Network virtualization begins with monitoring the network and often encompasses storage virtualization, which manages all of storage as a single resource. software delivers the high-performance, intelligent backbone for grid computing architectures. Leveraging the InfiniBand standard, Voltaire solutions offer improved performance, utilization and scalability across compute clusters, storage and IP networks. Voltaire solutions are available from major systems vendors and integrators. More information about Voltaire is available at www.voltaire.com or by calling 1-800-865-8247. All product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. |
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