InfiniBand is a powerful new architecture designed to
support I/O connectivity for the Internet infrastructure.InfiniBand is supported
by all the major OEM server vendors as a means to expand beyond and create the
next generation I/O interconnect standard in servers. For the first time, a high
volume, industry standard I/O interconnect extends the role of traditional "in
the box" busses. InfiniBand is unique in providing both, an "in the
box" backplane solution an external interconnect and "Bandwidth Out
of the box", thus it provides connectivity in a way previously reserved only
for traditional networking interconnects. This unification of I/O and system area
networking requires a new architecture that supports the needs of these two previously
separate domains. Underlying this major I/O transition
is InfiniBand's ability to support the Internet's requirement for RAS: reliability,
availability, and serviceability. This white paper discusses the features and
capabilities which demonstrate InfiniBand's superior abilities to support RAS
relative to the legacy PCI bus and other proprietary switch fabric and I/O solutions.
Further, it provides an overview of how the InfiniBand architecture supports a
comprehensive silicon, software, and system solution. The comprehensive nature
of the architecture is illustrated by providing an overview of the major sections
of the InfiniBand 1.0 specification. The scope of the 1.0 specification ranges
from industry standard electrical interfaces and mechanical connectors to well
defined software and management interfaces.Amdahl's
Law is one of the fundamental principles of computer science and basically states
that efficient systems must provide a balance between CPU performance, memory
bandwidth, and I/O performance. At odds with this, is Moore's Law which has accurately
predicted that semiconductors double their performance roughly every 18 months.
