SGI Targets First in 4-Gig

Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) (NYSE: SGI) hopes to deliver the first storage array with end-to-end 4-Gbit/s performance (see SGI Launches 4-Gig System and Engenio Goes 4-Gig for HPC).

The SGI InfiniteStorage TP9700l, set for March delivery, is based on a 4-Gbit/s controller from Engenio Information Technologies Inc. It is aimed at the high-performance computing (HPC) segment, SGI says.

Although Engenio also sells controllers to IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), its no surprise that SGI became the first to adopt its first 4-Gbit/s controller with an HPC system. HPC customers, a key market for SGI, run applications that use large files and require significant bandwidth, so they presumably can use 4-Gbit/s FC to break bottlenecks.

Indeed, since Gigabit Ethernet reigns as the preferred HPC transport, some industry observers think it's likely that 4-Gbit/s FC has a chance to eventually penetrate HPC sites looking to go faster (see HPC List Shows Interconnect Status).

In contrast, experts say most mainstream storage users seem to be chugging along fine at 2-Gbit/s FC speeds, even if 4-Gbit/s FC is backward compatible and costs around the same.