SGI® InfiniteStorage TP9700 with InfiniBand

TP9700For the first time, customers can leverage previous investments in InfiniBand technology by directly connecting servers in an existing InfiniBand cluster with native InfiniBand storage systems from SGI using commercially available InfiniBand products. SGI® InfiniteStorage TP9700 with native InfiniBand interfaces enables the storage system to attach directly into the existing InfiniBand fabric, simplifying the infrastructure, improving performance and lowering costs.

TP9700 with InfiniBand Datasheet (PDF 327K)

Features

  • Native InfiniBand interface
  • Single network for servers and storage
  • 4x 10Gb/s InfiniBand ports
  • Up to 1600MB/s per second peak bandwidth
  • Fibre Channel or SATA drives
  • Comprehensive storage management

In order for current InfiniBand-based clusters to utilize high-performance Fibre Channel storage, separate FC switches and host adapters, or IB-FC gateways must be used to enable the FC storage to tie into the InfiniBand fabric. Separate FC switches and host adapters create multiple network fabrics, increasing costs and complexity. IB-FC gateways become a performance bottleneck, are expensive and increase latency due to added protocol translations.

The TP9700 storage system's native InfiniBand interfaces enable it to attach directly to the existing InfiniBand fabric switches in use by the cluster, providing significant cost savings and simplifying the network. Additionally, native InfiniBand interfaces require no IB-to-FC protocol translations within the controller, enabling higher performance and lower latency.

The TP9700 storage system's high per channel bandwidth lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) while maintaining performance. With four 10Gb/s InfiniBand host ports, the TP9700 storage system delivers maximum throughput across a minimum number of connections, saving switch ports and lowering acquisition and service costs.

Delivering tremendous throughput, the TP9700 storage system is ideally suited for InfiniBand-based environments with high volumes of data processing and computing demands, including Government labs, scientific research and development, energy, weather and climate, and streaming media applications. With native InfiniBand connectivity and the ability to sustain exceptional throughput on sequential reads from disk and writes to disk, the TP9700 storage system is designed to excel in these bandwidth intensive, large-block applications.

FeaturesBenefit
Native InfiniBand interfaceSGI InfiniteStorage TP9700 with native InfiniBand interface provides a cost and performance advantage over Fibre Channel-based or gateway-based solutions for high performance and technical computing environments already utilizing InfiniBand as the server clustering interconnect.

Compared to Fibre Channel, InfiniBand offers lower costs and higher per channel throughput (10Gb/s versus 4Gb/s). Unlike gateway-based solutions, which are expensive, native InfiniBand interfaces require no protocol conversions, enabling higher performance and lower latency at lower costs.

Single network for servers and storageIt is costly to add a Fibre Channel network just for storage. A single, unified network for servers and storage is easier to manage and expand than two separate networks.
4x 10Gb/s InfiniBand ports High per-channel bandwidth delivers maximum throughput across a minimum number of InfiniBand connections, saving switch ports and lowering acquisition and service costs.
Up to 1600MB/s per second peak bandwidthWith native InfiniBand connectivity and the ability to sustain exceptional throughput on sequential reads from disk and writes to disk, TP9700 with InfiniBand is designed to excel in bandwidth intensive, large-block applications.
Fibre Channel or SATA drivesBy offering modules with high-performance Fibre Channel or high capacity SATA disk, custom configurations can be built to address specific requirements. Fibre Channel drive modules are designed to optimize performance while SATA drive modules provide lowest cost per GB storage.
Comprehensive storage managementPowerful, yet easy to use management software enables centralized administration of multiple storage systems from any location on the network-regardless of host or client platform.