November 21, 2008
BLADE Network Technologies’ top-of-rack, 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitch products provide superior cooling, low latency and price/performance advantages for IBM System Cluster 1350 data center building blocks including IBM’s iDataPlex.
It extends virtualization by mirroring the benefits of server virtualization within the network at the rack level, saves energy through rack-friendly cooling and alleviates management pain by removing complexity through simplified management and fabric convergence.
In addition to integrating BLADE’s RackSwitch into IBM’s cluster computing solutions, IBM has been providing embedded blade server switches from BLADE for IBM BladeCenter under the Nortel name.
“BLADE’s RackSwitch is the ideal switch for IBM System x environments because its design is a direct result of BLADE’s heritage as the leading manufacturer of blade server switches and unique approach to Rackonomics for cost-effective provisioning of data center networks one rack at a time,” said Dan Tuchler, Vice President of Strategy and Product Management, BLADE Network Technologies. “In addition to its extremely low latency and line-rate throughput, BLADE’s RackSwitch also employs airflow and other design efficiencies with the HPC-class data center environment in mind.”
According to a recent Tolly Group evaluation, BLADE’s RackSwitch G8100 outperforms the Cisco 4900M by demonstrating 2x higher throughput, 12.4x lower latency, 2.7x greater energy efficiency and 6.5x better price performance. (Source: The Tolly Group Report: BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. RackSwitch G8100 Competitive Performance Evaluation versus Cisco Catalyst 4900M Switch, Copyright 2008 The Tolly Group, October, 2008.) The full summaries of the competitive performance evaluations are available at: https://www.bladenetwork.net/pages/products_rackswitch.html
The combination of BLADE’s 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitch with IBM’s System Cluster 1350, iDataPlex and other blade server systems provides unique advantages for high performance computing (HPC) environments that require 10 Gigabit Ethernet line rate bandwidth, with exceptionally low latency, advanced energy efficiency and the industry’s best price/performance.
Providing a fully integrated solution, BLADE’s RackSwitch products are the only switches specifically designed to match IBM’s iDataPlex airflow.
By utilizing low-cost servers and open source software for high performance workloads, the IBM System Cluster 1350 solutions deliver significant price and performance advantages. Combined with BLADE’s 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitches, IBM’s HPC data center customers gain the top-of-rack network performance they require to ensure the best application performance in demanding HPC-class environments.
BLADE’s RackSwitch Products
BLADE’s RackSwitch G8100, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 24 lossless, low-latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GE) ports, is designed for emerging high-volume 10 GE application environments such as high-performance clusters that require latency of 300 nanoseconds or less, and/or as a 10 GE aggregation switch.
BLADE’s RackSwitch G8000, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports for uplinks and/or stacking, is designed for rack-level server connectivity, Web 2.0 cloud clusters and/or as a Gigabit aggregation switch.
For more information, visit www.bladenetwork.net
Links of interest:
- Ethernet Internet Quotes find out metro ethernet availability
- 10 / 100 Gigabit Ethernet Switches & Routers - National directory of dealers of Nortel, Cisco, 3Com and other switches and routers.
- Ethernet Whitepapers - Collection of 10 gigabit technology whitepapers
- Ethernet News - To get the latest ethernet news by email, Click Here to subscribe.
