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Andy Watson, VP for Strategic Technology, Network Appliance: Page 7 of 13

  • It works by taking advantage of standard memory-to-memory interconnect technologies such as VI [the Virtual Interface architecture] and InfiniBand in clustered data-center environments. DAFS is the language the applications use to access network interface hardware without operating system intervention, and to carry out bulk data transfers directly to or from application buffers with minimal CPU overhead.

    The end result is a significant increase in application server CPU cycles available for application processing, coupled with low-latency, shared file access among application servers and storage systems, all connected by either Fibre Channel, gigabit Ethernet, or InfiniBand networks.

    Byte and Switch: Wow, sounds great. But is anyone else supporting it?

    Watson: About 80 companies have signed up – check out the Website.

    [Ed note: Signing up to a Website is still a long ways off form developing real products. Also, it’s worth noting that Microsoft is not participating in DAFS.]