Need for Speed

By late 2001, Infiniband technology could supercharge e-commerce

The InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA, www.inifinibandta.org) has achieved more milestones in promoting acceptance of its high-performance I/O specification, which is slated to replace the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) data bus in high-end servers. Analysts think InfiniBand technology could improve performance of e-commerce systems by reducing I/O bottlenecks and making e-business architectures easier to scale.

In late June, IBTA released version 1.0.a of its InfiniBand Architecture specification, available on the organization's Web site. IBTA also held an interoperability-testing "plugfest" involving 20 member companies, which culminated with the configuration of a 41-node heterogeneous network (also called a fabric or subnet) connected via copper and 100-meter fiber InfiniBand links. Thomas Bradicich, IBTA cochair and director of IBM's xServer Architecture and Technology group, said that companies participating in the plugfest are now in better shape for InfiniBand product rollouts scheduled for late 2001.

PCI has been in use since 1993 to connect CPUs to networks and devices. However, growing bandwidth demand from Internet applications has created a pressing need for faster data throughput; especially for Web server farms and data centers, clustering technology, high-volume e-commerce systems, and ultradense server architecture being developed by Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Intel. Along with these companies, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are prominent in IBTA. Dell Computer Corp., EMC Corp., and Oracle are also among IBTA's 230 members.

Faster 1GHz processors, streaming media, and the need to quickly push large amounts of data into network storage systems have also fueled demand for bigger data pathways, especially for e-businesses. InfiniBand's point-to-point switching architecture can transport data between network, or fabric, nodes at speeds as high as 6 gigabytes per second (GBps). A December 2000 AMR Research report noted, "The scalability of any server is limited by the rate at which data can be passed between nodes. The current PCI is limited to 1GBps." AMR concluded that faster data movement could be a big boost to e-commerce systems.

In his keynote address at the IBTA Spring Developer Conference in June, Sean Derrington, senior program director for Server Infrastructure Strategies at Meta Group, predicted that InfiniBand will spark an infrastructure revolution. "Enterprises are constantly redefining and undergoing new business initiatives, requiring rapid IT adjustment," said Derrington. "Leveraging corporate information for competitive advantage requires an adaptive multitier architecture."

Derrington added that InfiniBand technology will help to optimize multitier server architectures and enhance the scalability of e-business systems. InfiniBand's ability to coexist with storage systems, server switches, and current IP/Ethernet networks will also contribute to an adaptable enterprise, according to Derrington.

Vernon Turner, vice president of International Data Corp.'s Global Enterprise Server Solutions said, "InfiniBand's ability to improve the overall efficiency of Internet data centers makes it an extremely popular architecture. Once the benefits of InfiniBand are realized in Internet data centers, similar operational challenges will be tackled in traditional enterprise environments."

— Claudia Willen

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