Beowulf Exchange

2008/9/16 Greg Lindahl wrote:

I have a bunch of 1gig switches with CX4 10gig uplinks (and empty X2> ports) and it's time to buy a 10gig switch. Has anyone done a recent> survey of the market? I don't need any layer-3 features, just layer-2.>>

Have a look at the Quadrics switches.The smaller TG201 switch would fit the bill nicely for you - you get get itin two variants, one with 24x copper ports and one with 12x copper ports and12x empty ports for GBICs.They're pretty cost effective,

John Hearns

Useful Links for Quadrics

http://www.quadrics.com/
Quadrics Website

http://quadrics.dphoto.com/
Quadrics PhotoGallery

http://web1.quadrics.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
Quadrics FAQ wiki

http://quadrics.bttradespace.com/
Quadrics space on BT Tradespace

http://www.top500.org/
Top500 website

Promotion of Supercomputers and Petacomputing Technology (PROSPECT)

Quadrics has joined alliances that promote technical developments and partnerships that promote HPC technology both within Europe and across the world.

PROSPECT is a European HPC alliance formed in 2007 and joined by companies like Intel, IBM, Quadrics and ParTec, HPC facilities like Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Cambridge Scientific Computing Centre, the Deutsche Wetterdienst, Jülich Supercomputing Centre, the Leibniz Rechenzentrum and several universities. PROSPECT's mission is to closely collaborate with the 'Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe' (PRACE) initiative to establish a European HPC technology platform, to define research and development priorities, time frames and action plans in supercomputing for the benefit of Europe's growth, competitiveness and sustainability. Quite a few development projects have been created by the PROSPECT partners with the goal to advance technologies for the multi-Petaflop/s era.

Quadrics Partnerships and Alliances: CDA

Quadrics has joined alliances that promote technical developments and partnerships that promote HPC technology both within Europe and across the world.

ControlPoint Developer Alliance (CDA).

Announced on Apr 30, 2008, the ControlPoint Developer Alliance is a community of ControlPoint software developers, integrators, and users who are committed to, and collectively benefit from, ongoing enhancements to the ControlPoint software solution.

Leveraging the ControlPoint Software Suite, which is available as source code to members of the Alliance, equipment providers and ODMs can deliver unique system solutions quickly and cost effectively, and researchers can leverage ControlPoint and Fulcrum's full-featured FocalPoint reference designs to experiment with new protocols and network topologies. Quadrics is one of the founding members together with Fulcrum Microsystems, Continuous Computing, Green Hills Software, Liquid Computing, Nimbus Data Systems, Open Grid Computing, Panasas, SMC Networks and XORP.

'As a leader in high performance interconnects, we saw the migration to 10-Gigabit Ethernet as a tremendous growth opportunity and our partnership with Fulcrum has allowed us to move very quickly to get to market. Now, as part of the ControlPoint Developer Alliance we will have a great software foundation upon which we can innovate new datacenter features that have historically not been available with Ethernet' Giovanni Trezza, Quadrics Chairman.

Quadrics announces new everyday low pricing on Quadrics TG201, 24-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Now, the premier name in HPC interconnect known for its reliability, flexibility and performance is even more cost-effective. The Quadrics TG201, 24-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch leads the market in ultra low-latency intelligent switching, delivering cut-through latency as low as 200ns. With its robust layer-2 switching capabilities and the ubiquity of Ethernet, the Quadrics 10 Gigabit Ethernet TG201 switch is uniquely placed to service the ever-demanding needs of the Data Centres, High utilization virtualized servers, Campus network core switching and storage consolidation. Where more than 24 ports are required, the Quadrics TG201 can be stacked to increase in 10GE port count without the expense of large chassis based switches.List price for Quadrics 24 port CX4 10GE Switch is $14,400, but the Quadrics TG201 24 Port 10GbE switch is also available as a 12 CX4 and 12 XFP managed switch, at $16,200 list price.QsTenG TG201 Features • 480Gbps of throughput• Fully non-blocking layer-2 switching• Industry's lowest latency - 200ns• XFP pluggable modules enabling LR/SR media• Low cost fixed CX4 ports for in-rack connectivityAt Quadrics, we are continually taking our Interconnect technology to new levels by improving performance and developing new innovations. Be sure to take advantage of the new everyday low pricing. For further information on the QsTenG TG201, please call Quadrics on 0044 (0)117 9075375 or email sales@quadrics.com.

10 GigE market is already sizeable - amounting to $9.5 billion this year alone - and is poised for impressive growth going forward.

10 Gigabit Ethernet Going Mainstream

The upshot, Infonetics reported, is that the 10 GigE segment should "thrive for many years to come," even as customers are starting to pursue 40 GigE adoption plans. For what it's worth, 100 GigE looks to be a long way from mainstream. According to Infonetics, it should begin to take off in 2013.
"A majority of service providers we've spoken to are expecting to invest in 40G until the 100G market is up and running; some providers are hoping to skip the 40G phase altogether, but we don't see that being a viable option, as growing traffic demands are outstripping current capacities and 100G won't reach reasonable price points until about 2012 or 2013," said Principal Analyst and Infonetics Co-Founder Michael Howard in a statement. "When 100G Ethernet arrives, it'll be the next big thing and the most important, because it will last to at least 2025, solving traffic problems for a very long time."
What's driving 10 GigE -- and, for that matter 40 GigE -- adoption? It's the capacity, stupid.
"As corporate applications get more and more bandwidth-intensive and enterprises centralize their resources, a tremendous strain is being put on their networks," noted Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research, in a release. According to Machowinski, network managers cite a need for increased capacity as their No. 1 overall initiative.
"[I]t's no surprise...that shipments of 10 [GigE] ports are going through the roof," Machowinski said. "Ethernet switch-based 10 [GigE] port shipments, for example, grew 140 percent in 2007. Growth should remain healthy for years to come, as this is an area where buyers are putting their money where their mouths are."
Over the next few years, Infonetics projected, 40 GigE revenues will grow at a healthy 59 percent annual clip. In 2007, it said, vendors shipped slightly more than 1 million 10 GigE, 40 GigE, and 100 GigE ports on enterprise- and service provider-grade gear; by 2011, Infonetics suggested, that total will reach 7.4 mllion. --

from: http://certcities.com/editorial/news/story.asp?EditorialsID=1409 by Stephen Swoyer