Ethernet Alliance SC13 demo integrates data center fabric including 10/40G, LAN/SAN, RoCE equipment

The Ethernet Alliance has announced details of its upcoming multi-vendor demo at the 25th annual 2013 Supercomputing Conference (SC13), to be held November 17 – 22, in Denver, Colorado. The technology consortium's demonstration in SC13 booth #622 will integrate a range of cutting-edge technologies from across the Ethernet ecosystem, including high-performance computing (HPC), networking, and storage. The display attests to Ethernet’s growing impact and influence in the HPC arena.

"With the ever-increasing interest in emerging technologies, convergence, and enhancements to existing infrastructures in both HPC and data center environments, the Ethernet Alliance is excited to bring a live demonstration of a real-world data center fabric to SC13,” comments Mario Chow, SC13 technical lead, Ethernet Alliance, and senior technical marketing engineer, Dell.

Chow adds, “Our Supercomputing 2013 demo integrates the best Ethernet technologies and advancements in a mixed-vendor environment – we have an operational Ethernet fabric that includes 10-GbE and 40-GbE inter-fabric links, LAN/SAN convergence with data center bridging (DCB), and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), 10/40GbE line-rate access performance, and full Layer 1 interoperability. This demo illustrates Ethernet’s growing command of HPC and other relevant high-performance fabric requirements, and sets the pace for its continued expansion within the supercomputing and advanced research community.”

Simulating traffic volumes, patterns, and flows found in today’s HPC and data center environments, the Ethernet Alliance SC13 demo network topology spans two layers. These layers include 10GbE attached servers in the access layer that are linked to multiple 10/40GbE access layer switches, aggregated by two 10/40GbE core switches.

The Ethernet Alliance SC13 demo was constructed with equipment and technologies provided by multiple member companies, including Amphenol Corporation (NYSE: APH); Avago (NASDAQ: AVAGO); Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO); Dell (NASDAQ: DELL); Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA), Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX); TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL); Teledyne LeCroy; and Volex (LSE: VLX).

“Ethernet is steadily making significant inroads throughout the global HPC community. As a market-driven technology, Ethernet is continually evolving and adapting to meet changing demands not only in HPC, but across a diverse range of industries and applications,” said Scott Kipp, president, Ethernet Alliance, and senior technologist, Brocade. “The prevalence of Gigabit and 10-GbE systems on the most recent TOP500 list demonstrates Ethernet is proving itself a reliable and cost-effective means for meeting today’s demanding supercomputing performance needs. And with 40GbE, 100GbE and the era of 400G drawing closer, we expect to see this shift toward Ethernet-based supercomputing to accelerate.”

For more information about the Ethernet Alliance, please visit http://www.ethernetalliance.org,