Silicon Graphics Inc. this week said it will offer 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections on its servers, workstations, graphics systems and storage devices.

SGI is offering the connectivity in the form of a PCI-X adapter and is targeting it at those organizations that need to transfer extremely large sets of data between systems. SGI says these groups could include those in government, science and media.

For an example of a high-speed application that could use 10 Gigabit, SGI talks about “virtual cockpits” used for mission training. Such simulations process terabytes of data in real time to produce visual effects, SGI says. A high-speed network would allow the data to be transferred from one simulator to another to synchronize the training of multiple pilots at once.

Other uses include film and high-definition video content transfer and delivery, for media companies that work with such content.

The company will offer 10 Gig on its Altix servers and clusters, Origin servers, Tezro workstations, Onyx visualization systems and InfiniteStorage storage products.

SGI is using the 10 Gigabit Ethernet card from S2io to provide the option for both 64-bit Linux and Irix operating systems. S2io says SGI is its first customer for this card, which is available today.

CORRECTION:
Last week I wrote about the schedule for completion of a 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard for FDDI-grade multimode fiber, and the timing was a little off. As the chair, Bruce Tolley, recently wrote to me: “The strawman schedule is very aggressive but if we hit all the milestones, the project could be standardized before June 2006.” http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/lans/2004/0517lan1.html

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.