QLogic adds InfiniBand switch, own ASIC

QLogic adds breath to the InfiniBand platform

Developments of the week in storage

QLogic added breath to the InfiniBand platform last week with the launch of the QLogic 12000 Series switch - the second product to use its TrueScale ASIC platform.

Until the announcement of the QLogic 7200 Series Host Channel Adapter this summer, InfiniBand vendors like QLogic relied on ASICs from Mellanox, the single source of the technology.

The QLogic 12000 Series is a 40GB quad data rate (QDR) Infiniband switch that scales from 18 to 864 ports with an aggregate bandwidth of 51.8Tbps. Classified as a director-level switch, the QLogic 12000 has 29.8 ports per 1U high rack mount configuration.

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QLogic added breath to the InfiniBand platform last week with the launch of the QLogic 12000 Series switch - the second product to use its TrueScale ASIC platform.

Until the announcement of the QLogic 7200 Series Host Channel Adapter this summer, InfiniBand vendors like QLogic relied on ASICs from Mellanox, the single source of the technology.

The QLogic 12000 Series is a 40GB quad data rate (QDR) Infiniband switch that scales from 18 to 864 ports with an aggregate bandwidth of 51.8Tbps. Classified as a director-level switch, the QLogic 12000 has 29.8 ports per 1U high rack mount configuration.

The switch is aimed at high-performance computing environments such as oil and gas, weather forecasting, automotive design and financial modeling.

Combined with Virtual InfiniBand Fabric (vFabric) technology, the switch can be sub-netted within high-performance computing (HPC) clusters for high network utilization.

In addition, the QLogic 12000 supports future gateways to 10G Ethernet and 8GB Fibre Channel connectivity. It is configured with wizards, which provide automated discovery, configuration and self-monitoring.

Both IBM and HP have apparently qualified the switch for use with HPC environments.

The switch is expected to be generally available in the first part of next year.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW and host of both the Masters of Storage and Masters of Servers Solution Centers.