IBTA Plugfest Expands EDR InfiniBand & RoCE Ecosystem

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ibtaToday the InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) announced the availability of its latest InfiniBand Combined Cable and Device Integrators’ List and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) Interoperability List.

IBTA’s world-class compliance and interoperability program ensures the dependability of the evolving InfiniBand specification, which in turn broadens industry adoption and user confidence,” said Rupert Dance, co-chair of the IBTA Compliance and Interoperability Working Group (CIWG). “With the continued support of our members and partners, the IBTA is able to offer the industry invaluable resources to help guide critical decision making during deployment of InfiniBand or RoCE solutions.”

Last October, Plugfest 28 attendees tested a variety of InfiniBand devices, including Host Channel Adapters (HCAs), switches, SCSI Remote Protocol (SRP) targets and cables. Of particular note, there was an increase in EDR 100 Gb/s InfiniBand products compared to Plugfest 27. This trend underscores the continued industry demand for InfiniBand-based systems capable of higher bandwidth and faster performance.

Additionally, Plugfest 28 featured the second RoCE interoperability event, with eight member companies submitting RoCE solutions for testing. Products that underwent interoperability testing included 10, 25 and 40 GbE RNICs, switches and SFP+, SFP28 and QSFP cables. RoCE interoperability testing provides system deployers with additional tools to accelerate performance of their Ethernet-based data centers through a proven RDMA technology.

Updated twice a year following bi-annual plugfests, the lists make up the IBTA Integrators’ Program, which is designed to support data center managers, CIOs and other IT decision makers with their planned InfiniBand and RoCE deployment in enterprise and high performance computing systems. The program is founded on intensive testing procedures that establish compliance to the InfiniBand architecture specification and real-world interoperability among solutions.

Vendors that contributed test equipment to IBTA Plugfest 28 include Anritsu, Keysight Technologies, Matlab, Molex, Tektronix, Total Phase and Wilder Technologies.

The next opportunity for companies to test InfiniBand and RoCE products is Plugfest 29, being held April 4-15, 2016 at the University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Lab in Durham, NH.

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