[October 23, 2001]

Mellanox Delivers 10 Gbps InfiniBand Switching Solution

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. introduced the InfiniScale MT43132 InfiniBand switch; a commercially available single chip silicon device with integrated physical layer for the InfiniBand market. Mellanox's InfiniScale switch improves the bandwidth of storage area networking and server clustering by a factor of ten, enabling an integrated and highly-scalable InfiniBand fabric while supporting the economies of copper connectors at 10 Gbps. The new InfiniScale MT43132 is the second generation of Mellanox's InfiniBand switch semiconductors and the first member of the InfiniScale switch product family. The InfiniScale device enables system vendors to build a complete InfiniBand switch with eight 10 Gbps ports using only a single chip.

"With the introduction of Mellanox's InfiniScale product family, 1 Gbps Ethernet and 1 or 2Gbps Fibre Channel backbones can be upgraded to a 10 Gbps InfiniBand fabric which will greatly accelerate the performance within data centers" said Vernon Turner of IDC, "InfiniBand based data centers enable higher performance and improved reliability, availability, and serviceability at price points significantly lower than any competing technology and in addition the option to use copper cables can mean thousand of dollars of savings per switch, versus fiber optic cables."

The InfiniScale MT43132 features eight full wire speed non-blocking full duplex 4X (10Gb/s) ports with more than 160 billion bits of aggregate bandwidth, and the ability to scale from 8 to 192 InfiniBand ports when combined with the InfiniBridge MT21108 switch device. The InfiniScale device integrates thirty-two 2.5Gb/s Vitesse serializer/deserializers (SerDes) into a single 520-pin package, making it the first commercially available InfiniBand semiconductor to include both the logic and physical layer in a single device. This level of integration reduces both power and system cost, simplifies board designs, reduces total package size and eliminates all external physical layer parts.

"We began shipping our first generation InfiniBridge silicon, a 4X channel adapter and 1X switch, for revenues in January 2001," said Eyal Waldman, CEO, Mellanox Technologies. "Since then we have continued to execute on our roadmap and with the delivery of our InfiniScale device, Mellanox becomes the first company to have designed, manufactured and shipped two generations of InfiniBand silicon. With product shipped to more than 60 companies, Mellanox has clearly proven its ability to deliver and take advantage of InfiniBand's growing momentum."

The InfiniScale MT43132 advances performance, scalability, interoperability and the cost effectiveness of InfiniBand based copper and fiber fabrics. InfiniScale devices are designed to be fully compatible with the InfiniBand Trade Associations (IBTA) 1.0a specification and interoperable with other devices that will be designed to meet the specification. Developers can combine the InfiniScale and InfiniBridge switch devices to enables system port densities ranging from eight 4X ports to multi-tiered systems scalable to 192 ports at 2.5Gb/s (1X). Platforms based on the devices can support full wire speed, non-blocking switches with thirty-two 1X ports or many combinations of 1X and 4X ports. The combination of core and leaf switching capabilities may be used to aggregate InfiniBand server blade clusters at 10Gbps to the InfiniBand fabric.

The InfiniScale switch offers advanced features such as caching, flexible forwarding, and advanced partitioning, allowing intelligent processing of InfiniBand packets and enabling flexible enforcement of access privileges. The InfiniScale MT43132 supports either 10Gbps fiber optic or copper connections. The advantage of copper connectors is that they offer significant infrastructure costs savings versus fiber optics, as copper transceivers cost many hundreds of dollars less than fiber optic transceivers. At less than $3 per Gbps of bandwidth, the InfiniScale MT43132 offers an unmatched value and performance for data center silicon switching solutions.

"InfiniScale devices provide high performance 4X core switching capabilities to complement our InfiniBridge 1X and 4X channel adapters and 1X switch devices," said Roni Ashuri, Vice President of Engineering, Mellanox Technologies. "Mellanox now offers InfiniBand products that provide complete 2.5Gb/s and 10Gb/s solutions for clustering, communication, and storage."

Mellanox is offering customers a complete Product Development Kit (PDK) for the InfiniScale device. The PDK includes an eight-port switch with standard 4X copper connectors packaged in an optional 1U chassis and includes schematics, layout, bill of materials, and a software development kit (SDK). The SDK contains driver development code, InfiniBand Verbs implementation, application examples, and debug/development tools, enabling customers to develop InfiniBand systems based on the reference software. The PDK is also supported by software management solutions from Lane15 and VIEO.

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