InfiniBand switch set to debut

ACTON, MASS. - InfiniBand start-up Paceline Systems this week will launch a hardware/software device designed to give enterprise users a data center switch that enables high-speed connectivity for servers, storage and network devices.

The company's switch, not yet named, will feature software called Apex. The software supports InfiniBand's switch fabric, which provides a universal high-speed interconnect, and management features that support mission-critical services such as failover, direct memory access and workload management.

InfiniBand is an I/O specification developed by a consortium of vendors, including Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Sun. InfiniBand's switch fabric I/O technology can be used to connect servers, storage and network devices more elegantly than traditional bus technology, such as TCP/IP and PCI, or PCI-X. That's because InfiniBand switches and routers will provide features such as direct memory-to-memory connections for clustered servers.

While details about the Paceline InfiniBand switch are sketchy, it will include support for:

• Server-to-server connectivity to link any topology or applications.
• Link aggregation that balances traffic on parallel links.
• High-availability software services designed to ensure uptime.
• InfiniBand ping and traceroute tools for debugging.
• Integration support for enterprise management systems, such as BMC Software Patrol and Tivoli Systems NetView.

Founded in 2000, Paceline has IBM and Stratus Networks veteran Ed Mezzanotte as CEO. Steve Hauser, CTO and co-founder, was the first technical employee at Nexion, a start-up developer of carrier-class multi-service switches that Fujitsu acquired. Clem Cole, the company's vice president of engineering worked with Compaq and Digital Equipment. The company has received more than $21 million in funding.

Paceline is trying to tap into a potentially lucrative market. IDC predicts the number of devices enabled with InfiniBand will grow from 14,000 in 2002 to more than 7 million in 2005.

IDC analyst Vernon Turner says Paceline's product could function as a stand-alone device in a data center, but could also function in a server blade environment, where storage, network and server nodes are placed in a chassis to form a high-speed backbone.

One of the hurdles facing InfiniBand is hardware ready to support it, Turner says. "There will be a chance of end users seeing early shipments in [four quarter] of this year. We are seeing the beginnings of alpha products today and, I expect that [this] summer will be the breaking point," he says.

The Paceline switch is expected to be available midyear.