[Beowulf] Intel’s 800Gbps cables headed to cloud data centers and supercomputers

[Gavin W. Burris]

Where is John Gage when you need him?  He coined the phrase "the network
is the computer."

On Tue 03/11/14 03:54PM -0400, Prentice Bisbal wrote:
> "Intel and several of its partners said they will make 800Gbps
> cables available in the second half of this year, bringing big speed
> increases to supercomputers and data centers."
> 
> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/intels-800gbps-cables-headed-to-cloud-data-centers-and-supercomputers/
> 
> This could be interesting. Unfortunately, the article doesn't say
> anything about latency.
> 
> It does say
> 
> "US Conec established an MXC certification program to help other
> companies sell the cables. Tyco Electronics and Molex are the first
> besides Corning to announce that they will build and sell MXC cable
> assemblies."
> 
> So it sounds like there will be competition for the cables, but what
> about the NICs and switches? Will Intel have a monopoly on that, or
> will this be a standardized technology that will allow other
> manufacturers to make their own silicon/complete products?
> 
> Years ago (the late 90s?) I read an interesting magazine article
> about Intel and why they started making their own NICs, graphics
> processors, etc. According to the article, Intel was content to let
> 3Com and others make networking gear, but when network speeds
> weren't increasing fast enough, Intel got into the game because
> without increasing network speeds, there wasn't much of a need for
> faster processors. We all know that Intel has bought QLogic and is
> spending a lot money on high-speed interconnects. Following the
> logic of that article, I guess Intel realized you can't sell
> truckloads of processors if your don't have an interconnect that
> makes it worthwhile.
> 
> -- 
> Prentice
> 
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-- 
Gavin W. Burris
Senior IT Project Leader
Research and Innovation Team
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania