IBTA Releases New Annex

SAN FRANCISCO -- The InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) today released a new annex to Volume 2 Release 1.2.1 of the InfiniBand Architecture specifications, called Annex A5: Pluggable Interfaces: CATx, Copper and Optical. This new annex, known as Pluggable Interfaces, provides a flexible way to incorporate different and innovative cabling, higher bandwidth links and active cabling technologies (including copper and optical) into the InfiniBand specification.

The Pluggable Interfaces annex was developed by the IBTA in order to provide a standard electro-mechanical method for attaching cabling to InfiniBand products. Only the pluggable connectors are standard; therefore the InfiniBand industry is positioned to bring new and innovative cabling solutions rapidly to market. Benefits include:

As one of the larger high performance computing systems in the world, it is important to us to have the flexibility to adopt new cabling technologies as they become available,” said Paul Calleja, HPC center director, University of Cambridge. “The new Pluggable Interfaces annex enables us to more easily enhance our InfiniBand systems with the latest technologies – whether it’s twisted pair, copper or fiber.”

InfiniBand Trade Association