Rubrik: World-wide News/Products & News

IBM: IBM and Topspin Communications Forge Key InfiniBand Agreement

Significant Relationship for the Use and Sale of Advanced InfiniBand Products

(18.01.04) - IBM and Topspin Communications announced a multi-year agreement to integrate advanced Topspin InfiniBand switch technology on IBM systems, and resell Topspin InfiniBand switches to customers worldwide. The five-year agreement gives IBM access to current and future versions of Topspin's industry-leading server switches and software for use across the IBM eServer and TotalStorage product line.

InfiniBand is a server interconnect and I/O technology designed to address the needs of computing platforms for increased performance, higher scalability, and improved manageability. As an open industry standard, InfiniBand is capable of remaking mainstream business computing by unleashing these capabilities and delivering on the promise of a single, unifying I/O fabric for the data center.

"With this announcement, IBM has placed a major stake in the ground in its commitment to InfiniBand," said Mark Shearer, vice president of marketing and strategy, IBM Systems Group. "As the only industry-standard interconnect today with scalability up to 30Gbps, and remote direct memory access (RDMA), we are convinced that this technology will dramatically improve and simplify the way servers communicate. Working with Topspin, our plan is to make InfiniBand a base technology for all IBM eServer systems and storage, and the underlying fabric for future initiatives around on-demand computing."

A number of joint IBM and Topspin customers are already benefiting from the relationship, including MCNC Grid Computing & Networking Services a private, non-profit corporation established in 1980 to advance technology-led economic development and job creation throughout North Carolina. MCNC Grid Computing & Networking Services delivers advanced communications resources through a statewide network for research and education.

Under terms of the agreement, IBM has the right to resell Topspin's current and future generation 4X (10Gbps) and 12X (30Gbps) Server Switch portfolio for the high-performance computing and database clustering markets for use with IBM eServer pSeries, zSeries, iSeries, and xSeries systems.

Topspin products are currently completing IBM Server Proven certification and have already been IBM TotalStorage Proven and validated for sale with IBM DB2 Universal Database on xSeries servers.

Topspin's Server Switch products are available today. Additional products resulting from this relationship are expected throughout 2004 and 2005.

About Topspin

Topspin is a leader in server virtualization, delivering the industry's first programmable server switch - a new category of data center infrastructure designed to allow virtual servers to be created by interconnecting server, storage, and networking resources on-demand. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Topspin products and technology are integral parts of solutions offered by leading system vendors including IBM, NEC, RLX, and Sun. Additional information is available at www.topspin.com or by calling 1-866-TOPSPIN. (ma)

IBM Deutschland

eServer, Storage, Linux

Kontakt: Hans Rehm

Tel. (0711) 785-4148, Fax (0711) 785-1078

E-Mail: hansrehm@de.ibm.com

Kontakt: Kirsten Drechsler

Tel. (0711) 785-4827

E-Mail: drechsler@de.ibm.com

Web: www.de.ibm.com