InfiniBand PCI ExpressModule Adapters Power Sun Blade 8000 Modular System

Mellanox Technologies today announced that its dual-port InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter (HCA), based on the PCI SIG ExpressModule specification, has been incorporated into Sun Microsystems' recently announced Sun Blade 8000 Modular System, a breakthrough modular architecture delivering the best of both rackmount servers and blade systems. Featuring tool-less installation, tool-less removal, hot-plug capability and 10Gb/s performance, the Mellanox 4X InfiniBand ExpressModule HCA expands the flexibility and serviceability of InfiniBand server clusters. The solution provides dedicated cooling, single-bulk power supply, and a robust form factor all contributing to highly reliable InfiniBand fabrics for server-to-server and server-to-storage applications. The Sun Blade 8000 modular system is the only blade server in the industry supporting industry-standard, hot-pluggable blade I/O adapters based on the PCI SIG ExpressModule standard. "The Sun Blade 8000 Modular System is the industry's first flexible, rear accessible, hot-plug PCI ExpressModule implementation in modular blade form factor," said Mike McNerney, director of blades marketing for Sun Microsystems' Systems Group. "The Mellanox ExpressModule HCA delivers a highly serviceable, highly reliable InfiniBand fabric interconnect solution for high-performance server clusters." "Today's mission-critical data center and compute intensive applications demand InfiniBand's world-class interconnect performance," said Thad Omura, vice president of product marketing at Mellanox Technologies. "Mellanox InfiniBand ExpressModule HCAs provide Sun Microsystems with new levels of serviceability and reliability, not existent before in a blade server architecture."