 - InfiniBand is an architecture and specification for data flow between processors and I/O devices that promises greater bandwidth and almost unlimited expandability in tomorrow's computer systems. In the next few years, InfiniBand is expected to gradually replace the existing Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) shared-bus approach used in most of today's personal computers and servers. Offering throughput of up to 2.5 gigabytes per second and support for up to 64,000 addressable devices, the architecture also promises increased reliability, better sharing of data between clustered processors, and built-in security. InfiniBand is the result of merging two competing designs, Future I/O, developed by Compaq, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard, with Next Generation I/O, developed by Intel, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems. For a short time before the group came up with a new name, InfiniBand was called System I/O.
Existing PCs and server systems are hampered with an inflexible and relatively slow internal data flow system, including today's 64-bit, 66 MHz PCI bus. As the amount of data coming into and flowing between components in the computer increases, the existing bus system becomes a bottleneck. InfiniBand provides a revolutionary new approach. Instead of sending data in parallel (typically 32 bits at a time, but in some computers 64 bits) across the backplane bus (data path), InfiniBand specifies a serial (bit-at-a-time) bus. Fewer PINs and other electrical connections are required, saving manufacturing cost and improving reliability. The serial bus can carry multiple channels of data at the same time in a multiplexing signal. InfiniBand also supports multiple memory areas, each of which can addressed by both processors and storage devices.
Unlike the present I/O subsystem in a computer, InfiniBand seems like a full-fledged network. The InfiniBand Trade Organization describes the new bus as an I/O network and views the bus itself as a switch since control information will determine the route a given message follows in getting to its destination address. In fact, InfiniBand uses Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) with its 128-bit address, allowing an almost limitless amount of device expansion.
With InfiniBand, data is transmitted in packets that together form a communication called a message. A message can be a remote direct memory access (RDMA) read or write operation, a channel send or receive message, a transaction-based operation (that can be reversed), or a multicast transmission. Like the channel model many mainframe users are familiar with, all transmission begins or ends with a channel adapter. Each processor (your PC or a data center server, for example) has what is called a host channel adapter (HCA) and each peripheral device has a target channel adapter (TCA). These adapters can potentially exchange information that ensures security or work with a given Quality of Service level.
The first products equipped for InfiniBand are expected to be available in early 2001.
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05 Jun 2001
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