14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, the world's most popular free operating system, has been more than happy to announce earlier that Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. is launching the world's first 25/100 Gigabit Open Ethernet-based switch IC.
Dubbed Spectrum and powered by Canonical's Snappy Ubuntu Core operating system, the next-generation switch promises to provide a scalable and highly flexible solution for network environments, offering the first end-to-end 10/25/40/50 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, based on the Open Ethernet architecture.
Being designed initially for Mellanox’s customers, Spectrum provides them with industry-leading 25, 50 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet performance, while also offering them the choice of API (Application Programming Interface) for greater flexibility and faster time-to-market.
“Snappy Ubuntu Core running on Mellanox Spectrum switches enables a new level of flexibility for network environments. Ubuntu Core provides transactional updates with rigorous application isolation. This is the smallest, safest Ubuntu ever, on switches, devices and on the cloud. We welcome Mellanox as an Ubuntu Cloud Partner. Together we will unleash a new wave of developer innovation,” says John Zannos, vice president Alliances and Ecosystem at Canonical.
Spectrum supports third-party software apps at the top-of-rack
Thanks to Snappy Ubuntu Core, the Spectrum switch is capable of running third-party software apps at the top-of-rack without vendor lock-in. Key features include full support for the 25G and 50G Ethernet Consortium specification, complete support for 56GbE operation, as well as 100GbE, 40GbE and 10GbE compliant.
Spectrum integrates 32 100GbE ports, 64 50GbE ports, 32 40/56GbE ports, 64 10GbE ports, and 64 25GbE ports, dynamically configurable packet buffer, embedded low-latency RoCEv2 support, tunneling support, gateway support, and support for more Virtual Machines (VM) than other similar products.
