Finisar’s Medusa Labs Demos 1.5 Million IO/s

Finisar Corporation has partnered with Emulex and Third I/O Inc. in an industry-first technology demonstration of 1.5 million IOPS in a single server benchmark test at Supercomputing 2008. Powered by Finisar’s new Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite 3.0, this demonstration is unique as it is the first time a single server has confirmed I/O performance as fast as 1.5 million IOPS to a Fibre Channel storage network. The Finisar, Emulex, and Third I/O network was operating in Finisar’s booth at Supercomputing 2008.

High IOP generation tools provide network equipment vendors and data center administrators with an extremely cost-effective means of stressing their systems to find the limits of performance without having to spend big dollars on computing equipment. This demonstration is the industry’s first to achieve 1.5 million IOPS on a single server, representing the lowest cost, highest performance solution available today. Previous attempts at stress testing used tools that did not allow for write/read/compare data integrity testing at 1.5 million IOPS. Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite is uniquely capable of generating over 1.5 million IOPS while at the same time checking the data for integrity.

With today’s new 3.0 release of Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite, Finisar is introducing a next-generation test tool suite that provides complete I/O generation, data and signal integrity verification, stress testing, performance benchmarking, and remote management capabilities. These critical features allow test and validation engineers to develop higher-quality products in a shorter time frame, for faster time to market. The test tool suite is ideal for companies developing servers, switches, Host Bus Adapters (HBA), and other storage equipment.

"Finisar’s Medusa Labs benchmark demonstrates a technology breakthrough in the IOPS achieved on a single server and it highlights the critical I/O performance and features Emulex’s LightPulse 8Gb/s Host Bus Adapters provide, such as support for the Message-Signaled Interrupts eXtended (MSI-X) standard," said Taufik Ma, vice president of product marketing at Emulex Corporation. "We have used Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite in the validation and optimization of the performance of our products for several years and thoroughly trust their expertise."

About MLTT 3.0
Key features of the new release include cross-platform remote management through a single GUI and scalability to accommodate large testing facilities. The enhanced GUI is designed around SQA workflow and enables the creation of full test plans with complete test coverage across multiple remote testing systems based on Windows, Linux, or Solaris. As a consequence, performance testing and benchmarking no longer require individual system management, making it possible for a single technician to initiate tests across multiple systems from a centralized management location.

The advanced I/O engine is optimized for the highest possible application bandwidth and IOPS performance. New graphical test scripting manages extensive test cases within a single test plan and new benchmarking options support full control of read/write and sequential/random traffic ratios.

"Finisar is committed to providing its customers with the best performance testing, verification, and benchmarking capabilities possible with an application. Our approach to testing with software allows engineers to use common system platforms to validate designs based on the latest protocols and technologies, including emerging protocols such as FCoE," said Paul Hansen, vice president of Network Tools marketing at Finisar Corporation. "With this new release, we focused on enhancing our current I/O engine and improving ease-of-use to assist developers in building more robust products with faster time to market."

Medusa Labs Test Tool Suite 3.0 is available now and operates with Finisar’s industry-standard Xgig monitoring and analysis platform to provide the most comprehensive testing solution on the market.