14 DAY TRIAL // QLogic Corp., a leading supplier of high performance network infrastructure solutions, announced last week the addition of its new QLogic 12000 Series of 40Gb quad data rate (QDR) to the InfiniBand switch lineup. The QLogic 12000 Series, based on the QLogic TrueScale switch ASIC platform, is the company's new class of InfiniBand switches including the latest advancements in technology, among them being the highest port count for a rack mount switch, lowest power-per-port, highest performance for a rack mount switch and higher network utilization with vFabric.
With the addition of the 12000 Series, the QLogic QDR InfiniBand adapters turn into the industry's first family of end-to-end QDR solutions, while also setting new standards for cluster performance, scalability and network utilization. Through the use of innovation, users can benefit from faster time-to-solutions for high performance computing (HPC) while running cluster applications including oil & gas exploration, weather forecasting, auto design and financial modeling.
“InfiniBand technology continues to play an increasingly important role in the future of HPC clusters,” said Earl Joseph, program vice president, High-Performance Computing, IDC. “Many traditional and emerging HPC users are expected to move towards InfiniBand technologies and will look at the potential for QDR InfiniBand technology, such as the new QLogic 12000 Series, to leverage its 40Gb InfiniBand speeds to build more powerful, small clusters and to scale large clusters even higher.”
The key features and benefits list of the QLogic 12000 Series switches based on QLogic TrueScale ASIC technology include the highest port count for a rack mount switch, namely 864 ports, highest scalability for a rack mount switch, 18 to 864 ports to be more specific, highest aggregate bandwidth for a rack mount switch, up to 51.8 Tb/s, highest ports per 1u of rack space for a director switch, 29.8 ports per 1u, and lowest power per port for a director switch, only 7.8 Watts per port.
Moreover, they sport future gateway capabilities to access the fastest data and storage networks, 10Gb Ethernet and 8Gb Fibre Channel, highest network utilization with QLogic vFabric, including adaptive routing and QoS, as well as an extremely easy to use wizard-based installation, automated discovery, automated configuration and self monitoring.
“Traditional HPC users are building massive clusters while new workgroup cluster applications are rapidly emerging,” said Jesse Parker, vice president and general manager, QLogic Network Solutions Group. “The QLogic 12000 Series is a new class of switches designed to scale cost-effectively from workgroup to Top 500.”
“This new breed of InfiniBand switches with QDR speeds and intelligent features can give customers quicker times-to-solutions,” said Herbert Schultz, director of marketing for IBM Deep Computing. “The QLogic 12000 Series offers the performance and scalability to meet the needs of a long list of demanding HPC applications.”