[Beowulf] SC|05: will 10Ge beat IB?

[Patrick Geoffray]

Mark Hahn wrote:
>>>Fibre-media converters are still expensive and as far as I have heard, no
>>>one is pushing 10G over copper.
> 
> 
> oh, yes they are.  I probably should have mentioned that - the multitude
> of 10G ports I saw at SC|05 were almost entirely copper (CX4).

The single-fiber SFP transceiver is shamefully expensive, it is 
basically a 4-way WDM module. There is an effort in the 10G committees 
to spec the quad-fiber cable that is used for many other things. It is 
much less expensive because there is no need for WDM, and it keeps the 
good properties of fiber cables.

> from Myricom, 10G appears to be at around $1k/port (all in).  I haven't
> gotten any real/firm prices on this, though, and certainly didn't ask 

The last time I asked, the public price was roughly (it of course 
depends on the number of nodes) $800 per port (all in) for 2G/Fiber, 
$1200 per port for 10G/Copper and $1600 per port for 10G/Fiber. For the 
IT market, the 10G/Copper NIC with the Ethernet-mode firmware was $800.

Patrick
-- 
Patrick Geoffray
Myricom, Inc.
http://www.myri.com