Mellanox Technologies is supplying its ConnectX-5 Open Compute Project (OCP) Ethernet adapter to enable the world’s first PCIe Gen-4 OpenPOWER/OCP-based Zaius, the open server platform from Google and Rackspace.
Mellanox’s ConnectX-5 supports both InfiniBand and Ethernet at 10/25/50/100 Gbps. It is also the first adapter to support PCIe Express Gen 4.0 for full 200Gb/s data throughput to servers and storage platforms.
Mellanox said its ConnectX-5 also supports Multi-Host technology, which disaggregates the network and enables building new scale-out heterogeneous compute and storage racks with direct connectivity from multiple processors to shared network controller. Mellanox Multi-Host technology is available today in the Mellanox portfolio of ConnectX-4 Lx, ConnectX-4, and ConnectX-5 adapters at speeds of 50 and 100Gb/s.
“We anticipate that Zaius and our Barreleye G2 server solution will bring new levels of performance and efficiency to our portfolio,” said Aaron Sullivan, Distinguished Engineer, Rackspace. “This platform combines IBM’s Power9 processor with PCI Express Gen4, and Mellanox ConnectX-5 network adapters. Leveraging these technologies, it is now possible to deliver hundreds of gigabits of bandwidth from a single network adapter.”
“IBM, the OpenPOWER Foundation and its members are fostering an open ecosystem for innovation to unleash the power of cognitive and AI computing platforms,” said Ken King, IBM general manager of OpenPOWER. “The combination of the POWER processor and Mellanox ConnectX-5 technology, using novel interfaces like CAPI and OpenCAPI, will dramatically increase system throughput for the next generation of advanced analytics, AI and cognitive applications.”
“Mellanox has been committed to OCP’s vision from its inception and we are excited to bring continued innovation to this growing community,” said Kevin Deierling, vice president marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Through collaboration between IBM and Rackspace, we continue to push the boundaries of innovation, enable open platforms and unlock performance of compute and storage infrastructure.”
