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One microsecond latency, QDR InfiniBand HCA combines Mellanox ConnectX technology with a RS-485 baseboard manager and a RS-422 distributed serial console switch: Microway will showcase its new ConnectX based InfiniBand solutions at SC07, Booth 2741. Microway’s TriCom-X is employed in both HPC/Enterprise clusters and Microway’s ServaStor InfiniBand based Storage Server products. TriCom-X is available with either a pair of QDR InfiniBand Links or a pair of 10 GigE Links. Both products take advantage of Mellanox ConnectX technology, which uses common silicon to provide either InfiniBand or 10 GigE copper interfaces. The 1.2 microsecond MPI latency of the ConnextX part makes it ideal for running fine grain parallel or I/O intensive applications. The new parts support SDR, DDR and QDR packet transmission rates that get set during the auto configuration cycles at boot up. The QDR speed of the links has been produced in anticipation of the next generation of Mellanox InfiniScale switches, which will support all three InfiniBand link speeds. “The new ConnectX technology enables 20 Gb/sec bandwidth and 1.2 microsecond MPI latency. This level of connectivity is especially important when 32 or more cores are linked together in parallel,” commented Stephen Fried, CTO of Microway. The TriCom-X HCA includes Microway’s baseboard management 8051 powered Nodewatch technology. NodeWatch relies on an 8051 that communicates with the master node in a cluster using an RS-485 daisy chained interface that can support up to 128 nodes from a single COM port on the master node. This portion of TriCom-X monitors three system voltages, five temperatures and up to 12 fan speeds. Another important feature is that it can be used to cycle either the reset or power supply on off lines, providing an inexpensive way to “green up” your cluster, turning off nodes when not needed. NodeWatch includes a web-enabled interface that allows users to easily observe an entire cluster’s hardware performance in addition to carrying out cluster wide actions, including rebooting, and turning nodes on or off. NodeWatch remains in control of the node even when the power is “turned off.” The serial console interface converts the node's internal COM2 serial port into RS-422, enabling communication with a master up to 4000 feet away while sharing the same RS-422 lanes with the rest of the cluster. When an RS-422 channel between the master and a slave gets opened, communications between a COM port on the master and another on the slave is established. This high speed interface remains turned on until the user opts to enable the ports on a different slave node. Microway's MCMS software opens up character based screens to handle serial based communications automatically from the main control screen. This "out of band" integrated serial console eliminates the use of bulky external cabling and expensive KVM solutions.