Ethernet Alliance Unveils Results of Its High Speed Networking Plugfest

February 27, 2019

BEAVERTON, Ore., Feb. 27, 2019 — The Ethernet Alliance, a global consortium dedicated to the continued success and advancement of Ethernet technologies, has unveiled results of its most recent High Speed Networking (HSN) Plugfest. Held the week of December 3, 2018, at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) in Durham, N.H., the multi-vendor interoperability test event drew 22 participating companies with solutions spanning the whole of the Ethernet ecosystem. Beyond the high aggregated success rate for all testing, the plugfest achieved greater than 95 percent success in testing of solutions ranging from 50 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to 400GbE, highlighting the growing maturity of PAM4 signaling while still meeting the industry’s multi-vendor interoperability demand.

“This latest HSN Plugfest was one of the most exciting testing events the Ethernet industry has seen to-date. A considerable number and diversity of products and technologies were tested against both IEEE standards and 100G Lambda Multisource Agreement (MSA) Groupspecifications. It’s events like this that reinforce Ethernet’s core value proposition: unparalleled multi-vendor interoperability,” said Dave Chalupsky, plugfest chair and Board of Directors member, Ethernet Alliance; and principal engineer, Intel Corporation. “The exceptional volume of both industry attendance and successful tests shows that our members are committed to Ethernet’s continued growth and evolution, while delivering the best experience for end users. It was a fabulous opportunity for engineers to debug issues and improve product interoperability in a confidential environment. We are already looking ahead to the next plugfest.”

The weeklong Ethernet Alliance HSN Plugfest commanded record participation from leading Ethernet product and solution vendors, with 22 companies from across the Ethernet ecosystem testing a broad variety of equipment and technologies. Ranging from speeds of 25GbE to 400GbE in form factors including OSFP, QSFP, QSFP-DD, and SFP, among items tested were Ethernet switches and NICs, electrical and optical interconnect products, test and measurement equipment, and electrical and optical testing methodologies.

Throughout the duration of the event more than 320 Frame Error Rate (FER) tests were performed, as well as physical layer parametric testing on both electrical and optical interfaces. Of particular interest to the community was completing optical transmitter dispersion eye closure (TDECQ) tests on multiple products using test equipment from different manufacturers, building confidence in this new methodology for PAM4 optical specifications. FER tests on 50G PAM4 and 100G PAM4 optics showed a pass rate of 96 percent in more than 79 trials. 50G PAM4 electrical signaling showed a FER pass rate of 99 percent in 160 trials on cables up to 3m in length. These results mark a major step forward in the transition from NRZ to PAM4 signaling for high-speed serial interfaces.

Attracting strong interest from the Ethernet community, the HSN Plugfest was open to both Ethernet Alliance members and 100G Lambda MSA Group members. Among the companies capitalizing on the competitive advantages offered by the event’s secure testing environment were Amphenol Corporation (NYSE: APH); Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE: ANET); Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO); ColorChip Ltd.; Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR); Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. (TSE: 2354); Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Company (NYSE: HPE); Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC); Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR); Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS); Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LITE); Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NYSE: MRVL); Oclaro, Inc.; The Siemon Company; Spectra7 Microsystems Ltd. (TSX: SEV); Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT); TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL); Tektronix, Inc.; Teledyne LeCroy, Inc. (NYSE: TDY); Wilder Technologies; Xena Networks ApS; and Zhongji Innolight Co. Ltd. (SZSE: 300308).

Additional HSN Plugfest events are currently in the planning stages and are expected to fill quickly when announced. Companies interested in taking part in these vital multi-vendor interoperability events are encouraged to secure their participation by becoming Ethernet Alliance members. Many of the technologies tested during this plugfest are also available for viewing as part of the organization’s live, interactive demo in booth 4749 on the OFC 2019 expo floor.

“Events like our HSN Plugfest are an essential tool for developers – the industry is in the early stages of new implementations of next-gen Ethernet products and solutions. What we’re learning here delivers foundational support for the continued advancement of these technologies, as the data gets fed back into the product and standards development process,” said John D’Ambrosia, chairman, Ethernet Alliance. “The Ethernet Alliance is committed to ensuring that Ethernet’s multi-vendor interoperability is maintained, and the wholesale support our plugfests are receiving shows the Ethernet ecosystem is fully behind these efforts.”


Source: The Ethernet Alliance

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire