General Availability of 20Gb/40Gb InfiniBand HCAs by QLogic

QLogic Corp. is now shipping in volume the highest performing InfiniBand host channel adapter (HCA) in the industry, based on the QLogic TrueScale ASIC platform for Double Data Rate (DDR) and Quad Data Rate (QDR) InfiniBand. The powerful new QLogic 7200 Series DDR HCAs are based on the TrueScale DDR ASIC and deliver a higher messaging rate and lower scalable latency than any competitive cluster interconnect available today. QDR adapters based on the TrueScale QDR ASIC will be available at the end of 2008. The new QLogic 7200 family of HCAs also represents the advancement of InfiniBand as a highly reliable network solution for HPC customers, with the industry’s first three-year warranty backed by global service and support.

"High performance computing is the fastest growing segment of IT infrastructure, averaging 20 percent yearly growth over the last four years, but interconnects like InfiniBand need to evolve in order for that growth to continue," said Earl Joseph, program vice president, High Performance Computing, IDC. "Technology like QLogic PetaScale and products like the 7200 Series HCA indicate that InfiniBand has the headroom and momentum to serve the expanding market for high performance computing applications."

QLogic TrueScale ASIC Platform — High Messaging Rate and Low Latency Powered by QLogic
The performance of the cluster interconnect can define the performance of clusters and the benchmarks for cluster performance messaging rate and latency. The QLogic TrueScale ASIC platform is designed from the ground up to provide HPC cluster interconnectivity with the highest messaging rate and lowest latency available. For high performance computing applications that require 20Gb DDR InfiniBand connectivity, QLogic offers products based on the TrueScale DDR ASIC. For HPC customers who need 40Gb QDR InfiniBand Connectivity, QLogic offers products based on the TrueScale QDR ASIC.

"Customers in industries that are heavily dependent on HPC are asking for cluster interconnects that are faster and can scale higher," said Amit Vashi, vice president of marketing, QLogic Host Solutions Group. "The QLogic 7200 HCA gives InfiniBand network administrators in oil companies, universities, government research labs and automated manufacturing plants, an option of leading edge performance from a market leader in multi-protocol server connectivity."

QLogic 7200 InfiniBand HCAs — The Performance Leaders
InfiniBand adapters from QLogic deliver industry-leading performance in a cluster interconnect, allowing organizations to gain maximum advantage and return on their investment in clustered systems by driving up the utilization of high performance computing infrastructure.

QLogic 7200 Series InfiniBand HCAs are the first to deliver up to 26 million messages per second between computing nodes at low scalable latencies, allowing organizations to gain the maximum performance advantage and the greatest return on their investment. The low-power design of the 7200 Series is environmentally friendly and is the reason why the 7200 Series can deliver the reliability needed to offer an industry-best three-year warranty. The 7200 Series is based on the OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) and have been certified with all major independent software vendors (ISVs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) for plug-and-play interoperability.