|
Gigabyte System Network
SGI is actively seeking partners to develop additional hardware and software applications for GSN and Scheduled Transfer technologies. The opportunities are substantial: GSN is the highest bandwidth and lowest latency interconnect standard, providing full duplex 6400Mb per second (800MB per second) of error-free, flow-controlled data transmission. The technology is ideal wherever organizations require timely and efficient movement of large amounts of information, including scientific and technical computing, HDTV, data mining, transaction processing, video and film archiving, and storage management. The ANSI standard provides for interoperability with Ethernet, Fibre Channel, ATM, HIPPI-800, and other standards. The key to accelerated and cost-effective GSN development is leveraging the SuMAC engine technology developed by SGI. Several partners have already joined the GSN effort for technical, entertainment, and enterprise computing applications. These include Philips, Davinci Systems, Genroco, and ODS/Essential. Other SuMAC licensees as of November 1, 1998, include virtually every other major platform vendor, such as IBM, Sun, and Compaq (DEC). SuMAC licensing and chip distribution have commenced to support these and future GSN application partners. Unmatched performance:
Interoperability: GSN and ST standards provide for:
Value:
For technical computing applications such as clustering and system area networks and for enterprise applications of big data client-server functions (e.g., HDTV, post-production scanners, medical imaging) and storage management backbones that need huge bandwidth, low latency, and extremely efficient CPU utilization, SGI® GSN is the ideal networking solution. It is also the only network capable of providing the bandwidth necessary for the film and video industry's migration to digital studios and HDTV. Customers with large data warehouses can use the technology for super high-performance file servers and backup servers capable of moving terabytes of data an hour. While every major computer vendor is developing GSN products, SGI has been the technology leader and is the only major vendor to introduce GSN before the end of the century.
Gigabyte System Network is a new technology for switched networks with a reliable, flow-controlled transmission of user data at 800MB per second in each direction. This is roughly equivalent to a link three times the speed of an ATM OC48c circuit or eight times the speed of a Gigabit Ethernet link. GSN evolved out of the ANSI T11.1 HIPPI task group as a next- generation HIPPI, or HIPPI-6400; however, it has characteristics that provide some of the best properties of HIPPI, ATM, and Ethernet. GSN uses four multiplexed channels called the virtual channels. These virtual channels are allocated to control traffic, low-latency traffic, and bulk traffic to avoid the issues HIPPI users saw with only a single channel when attempting to mix both bulk and interactive traffic. Data is transferred in micropackets of 32 bytes plus an out-of-band control word. The use of small packets and the virtual channels means that very large file transfers cannot lock out a host or switch port for interactive traffic. Link control and look-ahead flow control are done with admin-micropackets that are the same size as data micropackets. Correct link behavior is checked by CRC check summing on the link level acting internally only and for data integrity by a second CRC check summing acting over the full data path. Two common media types are used: a copper cable or a parallel fibre connection. The copper cable uses 20 coaxial wires for each direction with a signaling rate of 500 MHz and has a maximum length of 40 m. The parallel fiber cable uses 10 multimode fibers for each direction and has a signaling rate of 1 GHz for connections up to 300 m. It will be generally available during 1999. A single-mode fiber connection is planned to cover distances up to 2 km. Switches are in development for 32x32 connections and less. Part of the switch specification is a translational bridge that allows up to eight HIPPI-800 connections made into a single GSN node. GSN also uses a standard MAC address format that will allow bridging between GSN and other media using 802.2 headers such as Ethernet and FDDI. The Scheduled Transfer (ST) specification allows the possibility of transparent memory-to-memory transfers. As it is technology-independent, it offers the possibility of combining GSN easily with other network technologies as Fibre Channel, ATM, and Gigabit Ethernet. ST will be offered in addition to other standard protocols such as IP. The History of GSN and SGI's Leadership Role SGI joined the High-Performance Networking Forum in January 1995 and has aggressively developed Gigabyte System Network as today's highest bandwidth networking solution. SGI has provided much of the technical leadership in the ANSI workgroup standardizing HIPPI-6400 and Scheduled Transfer. The creation of GSN began at a meeting of SGI and a large customer in 1996, discussing the new Origin® architecture and, in particular, the NUMAlink™ interconnect technology. From the initial conception, the ideas were brought to the ANSI Technical Committee T11 on device level interfaces, and work began on the HIPPI-6400 specifications. GSN, also known as HIPPI-6400, is well defined at the physical and protocol levels and is in the final stage of the ANSI international standards process. GSN is a physical layer (PHY) currently being developed within the HIPPI family of interconnect standards. The official project number is 1213-D. SGI has been the leader in developing this technology and working on the ANSI T11.1 task group to develop the protocol specifications. SGI SuMAC powered up in late 1997 and is now available in production quality and quantities for licensing and sales. Developer Early Access Kits, Licensing, and More Information Developer kits, including GSN XIO adapters, and specifications on designing equipment to utilize SuMAC, as well as production versions of SuMAC, are available under license from SGI. For general information and other resources: The High-Performance Networking Forum (HNF): www.hnf.org
For related papers and links: CERN's GSN directory: http://hsi.web.cern.ch/HSI/gsn/gsnhome.htm
| ||||||||||
