What's Up Infiniband
Kirthiga Reddy
Issue date: 12/3/01 Section: Technology
- Page 1 of 1
It has been half a year since The Reporter first spotted Infiniband, an input/output (I/O) architecture that promised the end of bandwidth blues. Has the bubble burst? Is the dream alive? We decided to find out.
Infiniband (short for infinite bandwidth) architecture connects servers, networking and storage devices with a high bandwidth switched network fabric, replacing the currently prevalent PCI bus technology. The architecture provides aggregate link bandwidth speeds of 2.5 Gbps to 30 Gbps, while scaling to thousands of nodes and carrying messages over distances of up to 50 feet.
The key to the success of any such architecture is the convergence on and ratification of an industry standard. The Infiniband Trade Association (IBTA), formed in August 1999, has been the breeding ground for such convergence. Its members include industry stalwarts, across the hardware, software and storage industries, such as Intel, HP, Sun and EMC. The member roster also includes startups betting on this technology. IBTA released version 1.0 of the Infiniband specification in June 2001.
Across the board, there has been sustained progress and the industry at large remains bullish about Infiniband. Ten startups building Infiniband products have raised more than $250 million in the past 18 months. In June 2001, Banderacom, a supplier of Infiniband semiconductor devices, closed second round funding worth $35 million. Paceline, a company developing Infiniband compliant switching systems, received $20 million in April 2001. Infiniband based products have already made their market entry and many more are expected to make their debut in the next few months.
While Infiniband continues to gain momentum and is certain to be a strong player, it does have its fair share of competition. 10 Gbps ethernet standard offers high speed at a low cost. Consumers will have to trade off this lower cost against the additional reliability provided by Infiniband. Hyper Transport technology, also backed by an industry consortium led by AMD, offers system interconnects with a possible peak data transfer rate of 6.4 Gbsec. Commercial products are just becoming available.
IDC forecasts indicate the addressable market for Infiniband will grow at a rapid pace. In May 2001, the research firm revised its earlier forecast to show a slower adoption rate in its early years due to the current economic challenges and alternate product availability. This is to be compensated by a broader acceptance in later years because of the increased server opportunity. According to IDC, by 2005, about 6.75 million server shipments, nearly 83%of the market, will be Infiniband enabled.
Infiniband (short for infinite bandwidth) architecture connects servers, networking and storage devices with a high bandwidth switched network fabric, replacing the currently prevalent PCI bus technology. The architecture provides aggregate link bandwidth speeds of 2.5 Gbps to 30 Gbps, while scaling to thousands of nodes and carrying messages over distances of up to 50 feet.
The key to the success of any such architecture is the convergence on and ratification of an industry standard. The Infiniband Trade Association (IBTA), formed in August 1999, has been the breeding ground for such convergence. Its members include industry stalwarts, across the hardware, software and storage industries, such as Intel, HP, Sun and EMC. The member roster also includes startups betting on this technology. IBTA released version 1.0 of the Infiniband specification in June 2001.
Across the board, there has been sustained progress and the industry at large remains bullish about Infiniband. Ten startups building Infiniband products have raised more than $250 million in the past 18 months. In June 2001, Banderacom, a supplier of Infiniband semiconductor devices, closed second round funding worth $35 million. Paceline, a company developing Infiniband compliant switching systems, received $20 million in April 2001. Infiniband based products have already made their market entry and many more are expected to make their debut in the next few months.
While Infiniband continues to gain momentum and is certain to be a strong player, it does have its fair share of competition. 10 Gbps ethernet standard offers high speed at a low cost. Consumers will have to trade off this lower cost against the additional reliability provided by Infiniband. Hyper Transport technology, also backed by an industry consortium led by AMD, offers system interconnects with a possible peak data transfer rate of 6.4 Gbsec. Commercial products are just becoming available.
IDC forecasts indicate the addressable market for Infiniband will grow at a rapid pace. In May 2001, the research firm revised its earlier forecast to show a slower adoption rate in its early years due to the current economic challenges and alternate product availability. This is to be compensated by a broader acceptance in later years because of the increased server opportunity. According to IDC, by 2005, about 6.75 million server shipments, nearly 83%of the market, will be Infiniband enabled.
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