Aspen
NetApp
HPCwire

Since 1986 - Covering the Fastest Computers
in the World and the People Who Run Them

Language Flags

Visit additional Tabor Communication Publications

Datanami
Digital Manufacturing Report
HPC in the Cloud
Green Computing Report

Tabor Communications
Corporate Video

Joint Testing Proves Scalable 10GigE for Cloud Networking


Arista Networks, Fulcrum Microsystems and Ixia collaborate on testing of high performance datacenter switches for cloud networking applications

PORTLAND, Ore. Nov. 16 -- SC09 -- Arista Networks, Fulcrum Microsystems and Ixia today announced the results of collaborative performance and scalability testing of 10-Gigabit Ethernet in a cloud computing environment. The results demonstrated high throughput and low latency for Arista Network's 7148SX switch using Fulcrum's FocalPoint FM4224 switch silicon. The 7148SX is one of the densest 10GE switches on the market today.

As the industry moves to Ethernet in the datacenter, questions have arisen about the best interconnect architecture. The results of these tests show that high density, low latency 10GE switches in logically flat network architectures can scale to meet large-scale applications. The European Advanced Network Test Center (EANTC) has validated the latency and throughput tests per RFC 2544, RFC 2889 (for unicast traffic) and RFC 3918 (for Multicast traffic).

Performed at Ixia's renowned iSimCity facility in Santa Clara, Calif., the testing measured the performance of the Arista 7148SX 48-port 10GE SFP+ switch, which features Fulcrum's FocalPoint FM4224 switch silicon. The tests used full line-rate, large-scale traffic running fully meshed and yielded results that validated the switch's ability to provide the low-latency and throughput performance for lossless datacenter Ethernet transmission.

The test results showed "extraordinarily low latency" in the Arista switch -- as low as 600 nanoseconds (min) between any two ports--and lossless performance for all frame sizes using IETF RFC 2544 and 2889 throughput test methodologies. This performance means scale-out environments can now get true non-blocking performance using the Arista 7148SX switches, as shown by the absence of packet drops in the RFC 2889 full-mesh test results. Complete test results can be found at 7100 Series Performance Results.

With multicast traffic growing in importance in cloud networking applications, the tests showed that the Arista switch delivered at line rate per RFC 3918 mixed class and multicast-only throughput test cases with no packet loss. In the multicast-only throughput and latency test case, a minimum of 600 nanoseconds was recorded with average latency of 1273 nanoseconds and maximum latency of 1520 nanoseconds. Low-latency multicast performance is essential to many financial networks that need "fair" multicast transmissions where even a microsecond of early data delivery can mean an unfair trading advantage.

To deliver SAN-quality performance, lossless transmission is vital even when there is drastic oversubscription of a switch port. In an additional demonstration where EANTC was not present, the Arista 7148SX switch showed the PAUSE and Priority Flow Control (PFC) features necessary to maintain lossless transmission on ports oversubscribed as much as 47-to-1 with streams of converged IP and storage traffic at rate and at scale.

"As high performance datacenters move to flat network architectures in order to accommodate the increase in traffic associated with moving into the cloud, it becomes absolutely critical that these port-dense switches have the proper features to ensure reliable transmission of full line rate traffic," said Mike Zeile, president and COO of Fulcrum Microsystems. "This test data gives a real-world validation of the virtues of FocalPoint silicon, clearly demonstrating the features key to enabling dense, low-latency switches that scale without performance degradation."

"Today's cloud networking designs require ultra-low latency and non-blocking performance to deliver a robust platform that works for all applications," said Anshul Sadana, Vice president of Systems Engineering of Arista." With the Arista platform, our customers are no longer worried about the network being a bottleneck."

"10GE continues to penetrate datacenters as the prime technology to support low latency and high performance applications such as server virtualization, cloud computing and market data feeds," said Victor Alston, Senior VP of Product Development of Ixia. "We are proud to be able to provide superior 10GE test solutions with the performance, density and reliability required to validate the high benchmark set during this test."

Arista Networks will be showcasing its technology at booth # 249. Fulcrum Microsystems solutions will be on display in booth #335. Ixia will demonstrate its 10GE and datacenter Ethernet solutions at the Ethernet Alliance booth, #1259.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks was founded to deliver cloud networking solutions for large datacenter and computing environments. Arista offers best-of-breed 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches that redefine scalability, robustness, and price-performance. At the core of Arista's platform is the Extensible Operating System (EOS),a pioneering new software architecture with self-healing and live in-service software upgrade capabilities. For more information, visit http://www.aristanetworks.com.

About Fulcrum Microsystems

Fulcrum Microsystems Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company that has developed the FocalPoint family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) switch/router chips for next-generation datacenter fabric designs. FocalPoint devices offer the industry's lowest latency combined with the fine-grained flow control and high throughput required for converged datacenter fabrics. With its ControlPoint network OS, Fulcrum offers a complete solution along with a worldwide ecosystem of partners from which storage and clustering system designers can drive adoption of 10GE as the fabric of choice for a fully converged datacenter. More information can be found at www.fulcrummicro.com.

About Ixia

Ixia is a leading provider of converged IP performance test systems and service verification platforms for wireless and wired infrastructures and services. Ixia's test systems are used by network and telephony equipment manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers, service providers, governments and enterprises to validate the performance and reliability of complex networks, devices and applications. Ixia's multiplay test systems address the growing need to test voice, video and data services and network capability under real-world conditions.

-----

Source: Arista Networks; Fulcrum Microsystems; Ixia

Sponsored Links

High-Performance Computing in Action
Businesses that want to be on the cutting edge of their industries are increasingly turning to high-performance computing (HPC) solutions to handle complex compute processes and speed up their rate of innovation. Download this Executive Brief to see how businesses in energy, life sciences and entertainment put HPC solutions to work in their operations.

Accelerate your science with Seneca
One of the first HPC providers installing a 4X NVIDIA Kepler K-20 cluster. Invites you to a free evaluation on Seneca’s NVIDIA K20 Kepler cluster, pre-loaded with AMBER, NAMD, LAMMPS

Webinar: Programming Heterogeneous X64+GPU Systems Using OpenACC
Join Michael Wolfe as he compares the advantages and costs of using both low-level models and the directive-based OpenACC model for programming accelerated heterogeneous systems. Registration is free.

May 22, 2013

May 21, 2013

May 20, 2013

May 17, 2013

May 16, 2013

May 15, 2013

May 14, 2013

May 13, 2013

May 10, 2013

May 09, 2013


Most Read Features

Most Read Around the Web

Most Read This Just In

Cray CS300-LC

Feature Articles

NSF Forges Further Beyond FLOPs

In a recent solicitation, the NSF laid out needs for furthering its scientific and engineering infrastructure with new tools to go beyond top performance, Having already delivered systems like Stampede and Blue Waters, they're turning an eye to solving data-intensive challenges. We spoke with the agency's Irene Qualters and Barry Schneider about..
Read more...

CERN, Google Drive Future of Global Science Initiatives

Large-scale, worldwide scientific initiatives rely on some cloud-based system to both coordinate efforts and manage computational efforts at peak times that cannot be contained within the combined in-house HPC resources. Last week at Google I/O, Brookhaven National Lab’s Sergey Panitkin discussed the role of the Google Compute Engine in providing computational support to ATLAS, a detector of high-energy particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Read more...

Saddling Phi for TACC’s Stampede

The Xeon Phi coprocessor might be the new kid on the high performance block, but out of all first-rate kickers of the Intel tires, the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) got the first real jab with its new top ten Stampede system.We talk with the center's Karl Schultz about the challenges of programming for Phi--but more specifically, the optimization...
Read more...

Short Takes

Building Supercomputers with Raspberries

May 22, 2013 | At some point in the not-too-distant future, building powerful, miniature computing systems will be considered a hobby for high schoolers, just as robotics or even Lego-building are today. That could be made possible through recent advancements made with the Raspberry Pi computers.
Read more...

Running Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Cloud

May 16, 2013 | When it comes to cloud, long distances mean unacceptably high latencies. Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany examined those latency issues of doing CFD modeling in the cloud by utilizing a common CFD and its utilization in HPC instance types including both CPU and GPU cores of Amazon EC2.
Read more...

Computing the Physics of Bubbles

May 15, 2013 | Supercomputers at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) have worked on important computational problems such as collapse of the atomic state, the optimization of chemical catalysts, and now modeling popping bubbles.
Read more...

Internet2 Awards Program Seeks Innovative Applications

May 10, 2013 | Program provides cash awards up to $10,000 for the best open-source end-user applications deployed on 100G network.
Read more...

Floating Funding to Exascale Island

May 09, 2013 | The Japanese government has revealed its plans to best its previous K Computer efforts with what they hope will be the first exascale system...
Read more...

Sponsored Whitepapers

Best Practices in Big Data Storage

05/10/2013 | Cleversafe, Cray, DDN, NetApp, & Panasas | From Wall Street to Hollywood, drug discovery to homeland security, companies and organizations of all sizes and stripes are coming face to face with the challenges – and opportunities – afforded by Big Data. Before anyone can utilize these extraordinary data repositories, however, they must first harness and manage their data stores, and do so utilizing technologies that underscore affordability, security, and scalability.

Progress in Parallel: the Bull Parallel Programming Center

04/15/2013 | Bull | “50% of HPC users say their largest jobs scale to 120 cores or less.” How about yours? Are your codes ready to take advantage of today’s and tomorrow’s ultra-parallel HPC systems? Download this White Paper by Analysts Intersect360 Research to see what Bull and Intel’s Center for Excellence in Parallel Programming can do for your codes.

Sponsored Multimedia

SGI DMF ZeroWatt Disk Solution

In this demonstration of SGI DMF ZeroWatt disk solution, Dr. Eng Lim Goh, SGI CTO, discusses a function of SGI DMF software to reduce costs and power consumption in an exascale (Big Data) storage datacenter.

Cray CS300-AC Cluster Supercomputer Air Cooling Technology Video

The Cray CS300-AC cluster supercomputer offers energy efficient, air-cooled design based on modular, industry-standard platforms featuring the latest processor and network technologies and a wide range of datacenter cooling requirements.

SC12 Editorial Feature HPCwire Soundbite sponsored by ISC

HPC Job Bank


Featured Events


  • June 16, 2013 - June 20, 2013
    ISC'13
    Leipzig,
    Germany

  • June 17, 2013 - June 18, 2013
    Forecast 2013
    San Francisco, CA
    United States





HPCwire Events