New Release of Infiniband Trade Association Architecture Specification

The Infiniband Trade Association (IBTA) announced the availability of Release 1.3 of Volume 1 of the Infiniband Architecture Specification.

This release defines capabilities that will enable computer systems to keep up with the requirements for increased scalability and bandwidth, along with high computing efficiency and HA for both HPC and commercial enterprise data centers.

Volume 1 of the Infiniband specification suite comprises the core of the Infiniband Architecture, specifying requirements for Infiniband switches, routers, host channel adapters and target channel adapters for I/O devices. It specifies a complete architecture for managing an Infiniband fabric.

Its companion, Volume 2, specifies the physical aspects of the architecture.

The capabilities in release 1.3 of the Volume 1 Infiniband Architecture Specification present several improvements in terms of scalability and management. Deeper visibility into switch hierarchy and improved diagnostic mechanisms for quicker response time and a smaller impact on the network overall will reduce the complexity of installing, optimizing and maintaining very large clusters. The specification defines the gathering and reporting of cable information and network statistics for improved network management.

“Interconnect technologies must keep pace with the increasing size and complexity of compute clusters,” said Rupert Dance, editor of the specification. “With high performance compute clusters and data centers becoming larger and more powerful, the newest release of Volume 1 presents a standardized platform for networking equipment that will support the industry’s push towards Exascale.“

More than 100 representatives from over 60 technology companies within the IBTA contributed to the specification. Volume 1 Release 1.3 is available for public download.

The Infiniband Trade Association was founded in 1999 and is chartered with maintaining and furthering the IB specification. It is led by a steering committee that includes Cray, Emulex, HP, IBM, Intel, Mellanox Technologies, Microsoft, Oracle, and QLogic. Other members of the IBTA represent enterprise IT vendors who are contributing to the advancement of the Infiniband specification.