Mellanox Multi-Host Technology

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. announced Multi-Host, ae technology that provides flexibility and savings in building next generation, scalable cloud, Web 2.0 and data centers.

This technology enables designing and building scale-out heterogeneous compute and storage racks with direct connectivity between compute elements, storage elements and the network, better power and performance management, while achieving maximum data processing and data transfer at minimum capital and operational expenses. The Multi-Host technology is available in the company’s line of ConnectX-4 10/25/50/100 GbE adapters, and in OCP-based boards as part of Facebook’s recently announced Yosemite platform.

ConnectX-4 single/dual-port adapter

The Multi-Host technology enables direct connectivity of multiple hosts to a single network controller, while keeping each host independent from the others. The hosts can be based on different CPU architecture (i.e. x86, Power, ARM etc.) and dedicated QoS and host management channels are guaranteed to each of the hosts. At the same time, the hosts share the same network interface thus saving on switch ports, cables, real estate and power.

“The increase in compute workload densities expected over the next two years with cloud computing, dictates new server architecture requirements for agility, customized servers and better performance, with reduced costs,” said Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., research director, data center, cloud and SDN, Infonetics Research, now part of IHS, Inc. “Mellanox, with its multi-host capability, is bringing innovation to server architecture, and data center operators would be advised to evaluate this new technology.“

“Mellanox committed to bringing this feature set to market in a format that is 100% compliant with the existing OCP Mezzanine Card Specification,” Frank Frankovksy, chairman and president, Open Compute Project. “The Multi-Host technology enables the buildout of next generation compute and storage data centers that achieve maximum performance and efficiency while realizing CapEx and OpEx savings.“

“Our customers are on the leading edge of cloud services, and some of those workloads consume tremendous volumes of network resources,” said Mike Yang, GM, Quanta cloud Technology (QCT). “Eliminating performance bottlenecks and reducing latency while preserving favorable data center economics is foremost in the minds of customers running cloud applications that demand the highest performance, and Mellanox Multi-Host gives them a new and attractive option.“

“In today’s world of massive data, huge data centers, private and public cloud computing, Web 2.0, and big data analytics applications, providing a technology that increases computing and storage capabilities at minimal cost is a challenge,” said Michael Kagan, CTO, Mellanox. “Mellanox Multi-Host technology will provide our partners with a solution that achieves maximum utilization of computing power and network speed while lowering TCO and operational expenses.“

The direct connectivity between the multiple hosts and the centralized network controller enables direct data access with lowest latency, overcoming performance bottlenecks due to the current server NUMA architecture. It enables better utilization of lower performance CPUs which can share network aggregation directly from the network controller.

“With nearly two decades of experience providing in-band/out-of-band BMC solutions to industry leading OEM/ODM customers, American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) is pleased to announce support for Mellanox Multi-Host technology,” said Sanjoy Maity, VP, manageability solutions group, American Megatrends, Inc. “MegaRAC SP-X, AMI’s industry leading manageability framework, provides the source code base and development tools necessary to craft feature-rich, robust BMC solutions for OCP and cloud servers using any of the major CPU architectures and industry leading SoCs.“