Mellanox at Cloud Expo

Finisar Corporation and Mellanox announced a joint technology demonstration at SuperComputing 2009. This first public demonstration combines Finisar's 10GbE Laserwire QSFP adapter with Mellanox's ConnectX-2 Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) Adapter Card delivering multiprotocol options on a single board.

Finisar's new QSFP adapter is part of the Laserwire family, the industry's first serial active optical cable designed to accelerate and support 10 Gb/s Ethernet server connectivity. Laserwire utilizes fiber optic technology for the transmission of data, thus reducing the weight, density and power consumption of passive copper cable connections. The Laserwire family includes adapter modules for SFP+ and XFP allowing true plug and play with legacy equipment in today's data center.

Mellanox's ConnectX-2 VPI adapter card provides fabric flexibility with InfiniBand and Ethernet connectivity, while expanding the performance potential of applications within data center, high-performance computing, and embedded environments. ConnectX-2 VPI's unified I/O technology provides a one-wire solution for any networking, clustering, storage, and management application with an enhanced quality of service to deliver high application productivity.

Mellanox's ConnectX-2 VPI adapter devices will also drive dual-port LAN-on-Motherboard designs based on the QSFP host connector utilizing lightweight Laserwire cables (via the QSFP adapter) for 10GbE and Quadwire(TM) cables for 40 Gb/s InfiniBand QDR.

"By providing a Finisar QSFP to Laserwire adapter option into Mellanox's ConnectX-2 VPI cards, we are able to jointly deliver a solution important to the evolution of next generation high-speed server interconnects," said Jan Meise, director of strategic marketing at Finisar Corporation. "Providing the largest portfolio of active optical cables with Laserwire, Quadwire and C.wire, Finisar is proud to work with Mellanox on driving towards solutions for next generation low power data centers."

"Mellanox ConnectX-2 VPI adapter cards combine superior interconnect bandwidth and latency performance with I/O infrastructure agility to provide a robust connectivity solution for data centers and high-performance, high-transactional computing environments," said Bill Lee, senior product marketing manager at Mellanox Technologies. "Coupled with Finisar's active optical cable solutions for InfiniBand and Ethernet, ConnectX-2 VPI provides a single adapter solution and enhances the ease of use for converged server interconnects."