News Item Dated: 10 October 2002
From: Mass High Tech (10/07/02); Miller, Jeff

The emerging InfiniBand standard promises to speed data transfer and ease input/output burdens on CPUs and could eventually replace the PC's ubiquitous PCI bus, although its first use likely will be to boost data center performance. In anticipation, a number of startup companies are looking to cash in on new InfiniBand deployments, as the technology nears its commercial debut next year. Several companies in Massachusetts, for example, are currently conducting beta tests for their products with potential customers. Paceline Systems and InfiniSwitch, for example, both have lent test machines to Sandia National Laboratories in California, as well as to other organizations. Intel researchers found that server chips spend up to 70 percent to 80 percent of their processing power managing input/output devices running on gigabit Ethernet, while InfiniBand technology eased that burden to just 3 percent to 5 percent of resources.

Although InfiniBand is currently being aimed squarely at the data center and network systms, proponents one day hope to integrate it into desktop systems as well in place of the PCI bus. International Data's Vernon Turner says that the type of testing currently going on is critical for the success of InfiniBand. The technology was once seen as a shoe-in, with support from major IT vendors Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Sun Microsystems, but recently it looks as though it will have to be proven first. Intel recently announced it would not create silicon chips for InfiniBand, but would include integration support in its server software, while Microsoft announced it would not bundle InfiniBand drivers in its next .Net server system. Those setbacks indicate that the technology will be judged based on its actual merits and will not be a default upgrade.

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