Ethernet piggybacks on InfiniBand chip

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20 Gigabit/s? Let's first have 10 gigas!

I can't really see the interest of a 20 Gbit/s bandwidth over a standard 10 Gbit/s. Let's first have the standard implemented, and its cost will dramatically lower.

For most devices, only 100 megabit:s is available with standard Ethernet cables, and the wiring for 1 Gb/s is already expensive (however 1 Gb/s compatible devices are now more widely available, and start now at reasonnable prices that may be challenging the 100 Mb/s, and can be compatible with low-cost optical fibers for longer distances)

But why paying so much for a niche at 20 Gb/s, given that the wiring requirement for 10Gb/s is already expensive, and the result difficult to achieve. I just wonder about the reliability of 20Gb/s, which just looks like a minor optimization, working only in the most favorable cases with high-quality and very costly cables built specially.

So it will remain really a niche for use in compact clusters, in the same room, and where the cables or fibers are built specially with the devices that are connected with it.

The next effective change that will justify a migration of technology with correct performance/price justifying it will be with a true order of magnitude (i.e. 100 Gigabit/s, or at least 34 Gigabit/s). 20 Gb/s is useless: you get the same benefit with lower construction cost with just two parallel links, and in fact multiple links are needed to build clustered topologyies... And no processor is able to process such volume of data for now (a 20Gb/s stream needs first to be demultiplexed by hardware to multiple processors or CPU cores).

So let's wait for the first units of CPUs with 8 cores at reasonnable prices per Dhrystone (integer ALU) or Whetstone (FPU), and then such technology will become useful. But for the current clusters, this serves almost nothing, except for very specific DSPs that may consume such bandwidth (but DSPs are very rarely needed in clusters, they are used only as front-ends or back-ends between a high-speed network and processor clusters.

Posted by: PhilippeV   Posted on: 03/31/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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