10 Gigabit Ethernet
Featuring 10 times the bandwidth of the previous 1 Gbps Ethernet technology
The Chelsio 10GbE connection provides more bandwidth and reduces the interfaces, cabling, switches, rack space, power, equipment spares, management tools and networking skills needed to keep the 'supercomputer' going.
Over the years
Computer networks have evolved from centralised mainframes to decentralised clusters, where computing processing power is spread throughout an organization.
The powerful processing capabilities of these clusters
Due largely to the scalability and flexibility of affordable servers — have made clusters extremely popular for a number of different applications, particularly high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
As servers have grown cheaper and more powerful
It has become common to cluster larger numbers of less powerful servers to build highly available, cost-effective networks that deliver the same high performance capabilities of HPC networks.
Ethernet — reliable, plentiful and affordable
Has been the primary network technology for supporting the vast majority of network connectivity solutions. However, due to a lack of truly high-performance Ethernet products, most of these high-performance computing solutions couldn’t use Ethernet as their interconnect solutions.
In order to maintain the high performance of clustered networks
Servers were forced to use specialised interconnects that add cost and complexity to the overall solution.
It's all changing.....
Today, with the availability of high-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology, clustered networks can finally use this common and dependable network access method to interconnect their servers — while maintaining the high-performance capabilities they have grown to expect.
High-performance Computing
These applications can be divided into two basic categories. In the first category, applications that depend on the compute processing capabilities of a computer to complete their work.
In the second category, applications that are I/O oriented need interconnects to be highly throughput-oriented to maintain performance.
From the interconnect perspective, there are three main requirements for clusters to effectively serve these applications
1. High Throughput
High throughput capabilities are critical for throughput-oriented applications
2. Low latency
In a typical cluster, lots of nodes with moderate processing capabilities are joined to achieve super computer-like processing capabilities. In this environment, the parallel application splits single, large tasks into multiple smaller tasks and distributes them to all the nodes in the cluster; the original larger task will only be completed once the individual nodes are done processing their specific smaller tasks. In this process, latency plays a crucial role in passing these messages between the nodes; if latency is not below a certain threshold, then the performance of the application degrades as processing time increases.
3. Scalability
Although high throughput and low latency help individual nodes achieve high performance, that performance needs to be maintained as the number of nodes in the cluster increases. The true strength of a clustered network is its ability to maintain performance as it grows. If the interconnect doesn’t scale, then overall performance suffers as the cluster expands.
Interconnects for HPC support the throughput and latency requirements of a typical HPC environment, multiple high-performance interconnects are typically used — primarily Myrinet and QsNet.
Why choose the Chelsio 10GbE connection?
Reduce the time and cost of training
In order to deploy a new technology in an HPC environment, the IT staff must spend time and money on training in order to understand and grow experienced enough to support the technology.
Most IT administrators are already familiar with Ethernet, which is typically used in their networking environment.
Be vendor independent
Once a technology is selected, the user is essentially locked-in with a single vendor.
Switches are used to connect multiple nodes in a cluster using interconnects.
It is preferred to buy the switch from the same vendor that provided the interconnect technology. As a result, IT managers can not buy best-of-breed solutions from different vendors; a complete solution must be purchased from a single vendor.
Management and diagnostics tools
Vendors typically develop proprietary management tools for their own products. Therefore, one tool may not work with another vendor’s interconnects, reducing choice and once again eliminating the option of selecting best-of-breed solutions from preferred providers.
Multiple software packages
In order for these interconnects to work with different networks, different software libraries are required. Despite the numerous drawbacks, the lack of viable alternatives is forcing HPC users to stick with these interconnects for their high-performance needs.
Meanwhile, standards-based Ethernet — which has none of the drawbacks of the other interconnect technologies — has flourished in other segments of the network market.
The clear message
Users want to use a familiar technology like Ethernet - and with the necessary performance boost, Ethernet could easily become the preferred HPC interconnect technology.
Emergence of 10 Gigabit Ethernet
That performance boost has now been realised.
Ethernet has already proved surprisingly resilient, evolving into the default interconnect for networked servers around the globe.
The emergence of 10 gigabit-per-second Ethernet (10 GbE) carries on the tradition, bringing with it the same compatibility and easy migration expectations as its predecessors.
