Today the Ethernet Alliance unveiled details of its demo and presence at booth #3539 during SC14, the leading international conference for HPC, networking, storage, and analysis. In addition to a multi-vendor demo showcasing diverse technologies from across the Ethernet ecosystem, the event offers an ideal opportunity to consider the role Ethernet is playing and will continue to play in HPC. SC14 will be held November 16 – 21, 2014 in New Orleans.
This has been a profound year for Ethernet, with many new development efforts in its ongoing evolution – the drive to standardize 25GbE and 400GbE, growing support for Power over Ethernet (PoE) technologies, and the exploration of single-lambda 100GbE, for example. SC14 is the perfect time for us to look at Ethernet’s path to the future, and how this critical technology is truly going to unlock the next generation of high-speed, high-performance computing,” said John D’Ambrosia, chairman, Ethernet Alliance, and chief Ethernet evangelist, Dell. “The Ethernet Alliance SC14 demo illustrates those fundamental characteristics like power, performance, reliability, and interoperability, that make Ethernet indispensible to the supercomputing community. Ethernet – the journey continues.”
In its live demo at SC14, the Ethernet Alliance will be showcasing the full range of equipment and speeds commonly found in today’s data center and HPC environments. Among the devices included are core routers, and end-of-row and top-of-rack switches, as well as elements emulating users, servers, and other interconnected components. A mixture of traffic comparable to that found in a typical data center will be run through the system in an east-west and north-south pattern, at speeds of 10-, 40-, and 100GbE.
The Ethernet Alliance’s SC14 demo incorporates innovative devices and technologies from an array of member companies, including Amphenol Corporation; Avago Technologies; Cisco Systems; Dell Inc.; Ixia; Mellanox; TE Connectivity; and Volex.
The only constant in networking is the need to adapt to change. Year after year, we see increased bandwidth, throughput, speed, security, and monitoring demands – all to support network users’ growing needs for more services at higher quality. The push to standardize 25GbE and 400GbE is a direct answer to these requirements as data centers evolve,” said Michael Githens, marketing manager, Ixia. “Here at SC14, the Ethernet Alliance’s live demonstration of a real-world data center fabric showcases the current Ethernet standards in a mixed vendor environment. This includes links of 10-, 40- and 100GbE, as well as a cloud simulation of data center traffic to illustrate Ethernet’s relevancy to high-performance fabrics.”
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