[Beowulf] Re: torus versus (fat) tree topologies

[Chris Samuel]

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 06:22 am, Mark Hahn wrote:

> IMO, "industry standard" doesn't apply until there are at least
> three independent sources of all necesary parts, and really it's
> a bit of a lie until random far-eastern factories can churn out
> the stuff.

There were also some concerns about the licensing arrangements & possible 
patent encumerbances for the standards, and the fact that until recently you 
had to pay $9500 to get hold of them..

See the LWN article "InfiniBand: a proprietary standard?" at:

 http://lwn.net/Articles/106419/

One of the last comments finishes on an upbeat note though, saying:

 Download InfiniBand specification for free
 (Posted Oct 26, 2004 16:11 UTC (Tue) by gbayer) (Post reply) 

 Looks like the InfiniBand Trade Association reacted. 

 Today, I was able to download the latest version 1.2 of the InfiniBand
 specification here after a simple name and email registration. I did not have
 to sign any licence, nor did the specification itself contain anything beyond
 a copyright statement.

although this doesn't clarify any patent issues..

Chris
-- 
 Christopher Samuel - (03)9925 4751 - VPAC Systems & Network Admin
 Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing http://www.vpac.org/
 Bldg 91, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton South, VIC 3053, Australia

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