OFA event highlights growing number of options for RDMA users

DURHAM, USA: The OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA) has completed the fourth OpenFabrics Interoperability Test Event at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab, where eight leading providers of InfiniBand and iWARP equipment put their products through extensive interoperability testing with the OpenFabrics software stack.

Participating companies tested their equipment in a network environment that included the OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) Linux 1.2.5.1 software stack on clustered servers. Cabling was provided by a number of companies, including Intel. Test participants included Chelsio Communications, Cisco Systems, Flextronics, LSI Corp., Mellanox, NetEffect, QLogic and Voltaire. The participants tested a variety of InfiniBand switches and host channel adapters, iWARP network interface cards (RNICs), and iSER and SRP storage targets.

“The growing number of interoperable RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) products is great news for companies and organizations that want to improve the performance of their data centers,” said Jim Ryan, chair, OpenFabrics Alliance. “Interoperability reduces risk, increases flexibility and offers investment protection to companies that are ready to deploy InfiniBand or iWARP fabrics. And as we continue to integrate the InfiniBand and iWARP capabilities in the OFED stack, companies will find it even easier to deploy either of these high-performance technologies.”

OFA and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH IOL) also co-sponsor the OFA-UNH IOL logo program. Products that successfully complete the test plan are eligible for the logo. This enables manufacturers of InfiniBand and iWARP hardware to certify that their products support the OpenFabrics software stack and are compatible with other products that have earned the OFA-UNH-IOL logo.