Mellanox: HDR 200G IB Accelerating Multiple HPC and AI Platforms

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. announced that its 200Gb HDR IB technology and solutions have set performance records, delivering efficiency and scalability to high-performance computing, AI, cloud, storage and other data intensive applications.

ConnectX-6

HDR IB shipments began in the fourth quarter of 2018 connecting more than ten thousand end-points. In the first quarter of 2019, HDR IB will connect multiple tens-of-thousand compute and storage end-points in supercomputing, hyperscale and cloud datacenters around the globe. Furthermore, during the first quarter of 2019, more than twenty of the world’s largest high-speed smart modular switch systems are being delivered to multiple data centers, demonstrating the growing demand for the fastest IB solutions across many application domains.

“The innovations built into our 200G HDR IB solutions, the performance advantages and the in-network computing acceleration engines, make HDR IB the interconnect-of-choice for the world’s leading compute and storage infrastructures. We began shipping it to multiple customers in 2018, and we continue to see strong momentum for HDR IB across all geographies,” said Amir Prescher, SVP, end-user sales and business development, Mellanox. “The worldwide strategic race to Exascale supercomputing, the exponential growth in data we collect and need to analyze, and the new performance levels needed to support new scientific investigations and innovative product designs, all require the fastest and most advanced HDR IB interconnect technology. HDR IB solutions enable breakthrough performance levels and deliver the highest ROI, enabling the next generation of the world’s leading supercomputers, hyperscale, AI, cloud and enterprise datacenters.“

CS8500 Series

The HDR IB Quantum CS8500 modular switch system provides 800 ports of 200Gb/s throughput per direction (or 400Gb/s of full bi-directional data throughput), or 1,600 ports of 100Gb/s data throughout per direction (or 200Gb/s of full bi-directional data throughput) switching capacity, making it fastest high-speed smart switch system. It enables a total of 320Tb/s switching capacity, 1.4 to 2.5 times higher compared to alternative products – equivalent to sending the content of 800 Ultra Definition Blu-Ray discs every second.

The HDR 200G IB in-network computing acceleration engines, including the company’s Scalable Hierarchical Aggregation and Reduction Protocol (SHARP), and other Message Passing Interface (MPI) offloads, provide high performance and scalability. For HPC and AI applications, the firm’s SHARP improves the data aggregation operations by three times compared to CPU-based implementations, resulting in accelerating scientific simulations, data analysis and AI deep learning training applications.

The HDR IB adapters deliver high throughput and message rate, demonstrating the ability to send 215 million messages per second into the network, 1.5 times better compared to EDR IB.

QM8700 Series switch

The higher switch density of the HDR IB Quantum switch enables the users to optimize their use of space and power, and to maximize their data center return-on-investment. For departmental-scale implementations, a single Quantum QM8700 switch connects 80 servers reflecting 1.7 times higher than competitive products. For enterprise-scale, a 2-layer Quantum switch topology connects 3,200 servers which is 2.8 times higher than competitive products. For hyperscale, a three-layer Quantum switch topology connects 128,000 servers, or 4.6 times higher than competitive products.

The company’s HDR IB end-to-end solution, including ConnectX-6 adapters, Quantum switches, the upcoming HDR BlueField system-on-a-chip (SoC), and LinkX cables and transceivers, delivers performance and scalability for HPC, cloud, AI, storage, and other applications, providing users with the capabilities to enhance their research, discoveries and product development. The HDR BlueField SoC will provide an optimized NVMe storage performance, enhanced security capabilities and the ability to offload user-defined algorithms from the main CPU to the network, resulting in lower latency and higher data-center efficiency. These IB solutions supports all compute architectures, with guaranteed backward and forward compatibility.

Additional resources:
Mellanox 200G HDR InfiniBand Adapters and Switches
BlueField SoC