Although no IOV standards exist, Emulex, LSI Logic, Neterion and NetXen have demonstrated IOV capabilities. For companies pondering a move into server virtualization, IOV can make the investment in high-performance interfaces, such as SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), 10 Gigabit Ethernet, InfiniBand DDR (double data rate) and FC, more practical through the shared access that IOV can provide to multiple VMs.
Processor vendors also are looking to improve the virtual I/O situation, and both AMD's IOMMU (I/O Memory Mapping Unit) and Intel's VT-d (Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O) are expected to be introduced in 2007. These CPU-based enhancements aren't expected to impact performance as much as they will improve DMA (direct memory access) mapping and provide greater protection among multiple VMs and their assigned I/O devices.
More Is Better?
Dual-core x86 systems took the server world by storm this year, and if Intel and AMD are to be believed, the same will happen with the next generation of quad-core systems sometime in 2007. As usual, these perpetual rivals are going about quad-core processing in completely different manners. The Xeon 5300's design follows the same two-die, multichip approach as Intel's first dual-core systems did and will incorporate a pair of stacked, dual-core Woodcrest chips that occupy a single socket.
Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer for Juniper Networks, explains how the advanced technology is transforming operations.
Contact center leaders from 8x8, Awaken Intelligence, and 360insight discuss the importance of agent experience.
AI may force enterprises to rewire parts of their data centers so they are fully optimized to run such workloads. The question is do you use Ethernet or InfiniBand?
