40Gb/s InfiniBand was introduced in June 2008 and this compute cluster showcases the quick industry acceptance and adoption compared to other high speed interconnect technologies. Mellanox 40Gb/s InfiniBand technology provides the necessary scalability and performance for the CHECS research activities and will be the foundation for the development of next generation, power-aware high-end computing resources.

"Mellanox continues to lead the high-performance computing and enterprise data centre industry with the highest performing interconnect technology that delivers unmatched performance for parallel compute clusters", stated Thad Omura, vice president of product marketing at Mellanox Technologies. "In 2003 we partnered with Virginia Tech to build the first 10Gb/s InfiniBand large-scale cluster that was ranked number three on the Top500 list at the time. We are excited to partner with Virginia Tech for the first large-scale cluster installation using 40Gb/s InfiniBand, which leverages the mature InfiniBand ecosystem to support the ever increasing demands for efficient and scalable compute systems."

The new system consists of 324 Apple Mac Pro Servers with the total of 2592 CPU cores efficiently connected with ConnectX 40Gb/s InfiniBand adapters and InfiniScale IV switches, and 40Gb/s copper cables from Amphenol and W.L. Gore & Associates. The system would have been ranked in the Top 100 systems of the June 2008 Top500 list of supercomputers. CHECS will be leveraging the system and the new InfiniBand capabilities of congestion control and adaptive routing for expanding high-end computing research activities, in particular in the areas of power aware systems, transparent distributed shared memory systems and high-performance distributed storage systems.