The SGI® GSN adapter for SGI® Origin® and Onyx®, platforms is a single-port network interface board that conforms to the ANSI HIPPI-6400-PH specification, revision 2.1. The adapter implements 20-bit parallel copper-based Gigabyte System Network™, providing bandwidth of 800MB per second in each direction. This is in excess of eight times the speed of HIPPI-800 and Fibre Channel, six times the speed of Gigabit Ethernet, and three times the speed of OC48c ATM. In raw numbers, a payload of 2.5TB can be moved in an hour per direction.

Functional features include:

• IP-over-GSN driver that interfaces the GSN hardware to the Internet Protocol (IP) and its associated transport-layer protocols: TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc.
• ST-over-GSN driver that interfaces the GSN hardware to the Scheduled Transfer (ST) protocol
• BDS-over-GSN for users of SGI's accelerated Bulk Data Service software
• ARP for GSN that automatically resolves physical-layer HIPPI-6400 ULA addresses to/from network-layer addresses (for IP and ST)
• Support of static table lookup for handling systems that do not support ARP
• IRIX® sockets-based application programming interface (API) to the IP network stack (driver) for use by customers who want to develop or port applications to send/receive data through the IP-over-GSN subsystem
• IRIX sockets-based application programming interface (API) to the ST network stack (driver) for use by customers who want to develop or port applications to send/receive data through the ST-over-GSN subsystem
• Full broadcast support

Physical Description

The GSN adapter is a half-size XIO board that connects to a parallel copper HIPPI-6400 cable. This provides for receiving and transmitting simultaneously at a distance of up to 40 m. Switches and optical links can allow a GSN network to span a greater distance.

The adapter is based on three SGI ASICs, the XC for a crosstown link to a second XIO slot and crossbow, the SuMAC, which implements the HIPPI-6400 MAC protocol, and the SHAC, which interfaces the SuMAC to one or two XIO links and implements the DMA engines and portions of the ST protocol. The GSN adapter has both a connector for the GSN link and a connector for a crosstown connection to a second XIO slot.

Top view of the main board of the GSNIC adapter.

Under the large heat sink is the SHAC ST accelerator. Under the small heatsink is the XC ASIC that drives the crosstown port on the front of the adapter. The other ASIC is the SuMAC in the lower right, which implements the HIPPI-6400 MAC layer and drives the HIPPI-6400 port on the front of the adapter.

To the left is the GSN port, and to the right is the crosstown port to link to a second XIO slot on a second crossbow.

Side view of the GSNIC adapter.

• XT-GSN-C-1XIO
  Single-port GSNIC copper adapter to interface to one XIO slot. In Origin® platforms, this adapter will be limited to approximately 500MB per second.
• XT-GSN-C-2XIO
  Single-port GSNIC copper adapter to interface to two XIO slots. In Origin® platforms, this adapter has the potential to offer full performance in excess of 700MB per second, depending on the application.

Adapter Accessories/Related Products

Cables will also be available for the products:

Nonequalized parallel copper cables--for shorter distances HIPPI-6400 does not require passive equalization in the cable assembly.

XT-GSN-C-CABLE-5M GSN COPPER CABLE 5M
XT-GSN-C-CABLE-10M GSN COPPER CABLE 10M

Equalized parallel copper cables--for longer distances HIPPI-6400 requires passive equalization in the cable assembly at the transmitter.

XT-GSN-C-CABLE-25M GSN COPPER CABLE 25M
XT-GSN-C-CABLE-40M GSN COPPER CABLE 40M

Gigabyte System Network coexists with HIPPI-800 and other media through switches available from Video Propulsion (Genroco) and Essential Communications.
Software is available separately.

Software is available separately.