IBM Puts Topspin on Blades

InfiniBand, still trying to find its place in the world, is starting to show up on blade servers as an alternative to Fibre Channel or Ethernet.

IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and NEC Solutions (America) Inc. today announced blade servers that include InfiniBand equipment from Topspin Communications Inc. (see IBM Puts Topspin on BladeCenter and NEC Ships Blade With InfiniBand).

As part of a deal it announced with Topspin last January, Big Blues BladeCenter options include an 18-port Topspin InfiniBand switch module built into the blade-server chassis and an InfiniBand HCA expansion card (see IBM Strikes InfiniBand Deal).

NEC says it's shipping a Topspin InfiniBand PCI-X host adapter in its new Itanium 2 blade server with 64-bit processing power. Besides giving InfiniBand a more prominent role in its blade, blade-server market leader IBM will provide Topspin with a chance to extend its reach.

IBM offers Topspin gear as an alternative to Fibre Channel switches from Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD), QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC), or Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) Ethernet switches. The Topspin switch module starts at $7,500 and the HCA expansion card starts at $1,650. They will be available next month.The news show another step in Topspin’s strategy, which has been to forge OEM deals with server vendors. It also counts Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) as partners. None of them have built Topspin equipment into blades, but they are expected to follow IBM’s lead.

So what will a place on blade servers do for InfiniBand? IBM BladeCenter marketing manager Ishan Sehgal says IBM blades with InfiniBand are being tested by large financial firms, so it could give Topspin a spot in that market. BladeCenter was also used in 42 of the Top 500 Supercomputer Sites released Monday, and InfiniBand vendors have had a tough time cracking that list (see US Reclaims Supercomputing Crown).

Analyst Jonathan Eunice of Illuminata Inc. says InfiniBand can still win a place in specialized markets, but will never become the networking interconnect of choice.

“It’s not too late for InfiniBand to be a good clustering data center interconnect,” he says. “It is too late for InfiniBand to be a general interconnect to compete with Ethernet.”

InfiniBand could certainly use a boost in high-performance computing. The Top 500 Supercomputer list shows InfiniBand used in only ten sites -- the same number as the previous list six months ago (see HPC List Shows Interconnect Status). InfiniBand competitor Myrinet, the interconnect technology licensed by Myricom Inc., shot into the lead with 193 sites to overtake Gigabit Ethernet, which crept up to 176 sites.Eunice says he expects InfiniBand will eventually cut into Myrinet’s share. “Myricom is widely installed in labs, but it’s somewhat proprietary,” he says. “InfiniBand is more standardized, more open, and more partitionable. It’s been a slow road for InfiniBand, but it’s survived the valley of the shadow of death.”

There are signs of a tad more momentum than before. Topspin claims it shipped more than 10,000 InfiniBand ports last quarter and the Supercomputing 2004 show in Pittsburgh this week had a share of InfiniBand announcements:

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch

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