The Next-Generation Fabric
Intel® Omni-Path Architecture (Intel® OPA) delivers the performance for tomorrow’s high performance computing (HPC) workloads and the ability to scale to tens of thousands of nodes—and eventually more—at a price competitive with today’s fabrics. The Intel OPA 100 Series product line is an end-to-end solution of PCIe* adapters, silicon, switches, cables, and management software. As the successor to Intel® True Scale Fabric, this optimized HPC fabric is built upon a combination of enhanced IP and Intel® technology.
For software applications, Intel OPA will maintain consistency and compatibility with existing Intel True Scale Fabric and InfiniBand* APIs by working through the open source OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA) software stack on leading Linux* distribution releases. Intel True Scale Fabric customers will be able to migrate to Intel OPA through an upgrade program.
The Future of High Performance Fabrics
Current standards-based high performance fabrics, such as InfiniBand*, were not originally designed for HPC, resulting in performance and scaling weaknesses that are currently impeding the path to Exascale computing. Intel® Omni-Path Architecture is being designed specifically to address these issues and scale cost-effectively from entry level HPC clusters to larger clusters with 10,000 nodes or more. To improve on the InfiniBand specification and design, Intel is using the industry’s best technologies including those acquired from QLogic and Cray alongside Intel® technologies.
While both Intel OPA and InfiniBand Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) will run at 100Gbps, there are many differences. The enhancements of Intel OPA will help enable the progression towards Exascale while cost-effectively supporting clusters of all sizes with optimization for HPC applications at both the host and fabric levels for benefits that are not possible with the standard InfiniBand-based designs.
Intel OPA is designed to provide the:
-Features and functionality at both the host and fabric levels to greatly raise levels of scaling
-CPU and fabric integration necessary for the increased computing density, improved reliability, reduced power, and lower costs required by significantly larger HPC deployments
-Fabric tools to readily install, verify, and manage fabrics at this level of complexity
Specifications
Description 1U 48 Port 100 Gbps Switch based on the Intel® Omni-Path Architecture
Power Supply Type AC
# of Power Supply Included 2
Redundant Fans Yes
Rack Rails Included Yes
# of Ports External 48
Operating Temperature Range 0°C to 40°C
-Networking Specifications
Data Rate Per Port 100Gbps
SKU# 100SWE48UF2
Higher Performance at Lower Cost
Intel® Omni-Path Edge Switches deliver 100 Gbps port bandwidth with latency that stays low even at extreme scale. Second generation Intel fabric switch silicon, with market leading 48 port radix, these switches can lower fabric acquisition costs by as much as 50 percent, while simultaneously reducing space and power requirements. With these savings, you can potentially achieve higher total cluster performance within the same hardware budget to expand and accelerate your research.
