INDUSTRY

Delivers Sub-Microsecond Latency in a Compact Device; Ideal for Co-Located Low-Latency Trading, High-Performance Storage and Scale-out Databases

Voltaire today announced the industry’s first 40 Gb/s InfiniBand switch with a built-in low latency Ethernet gateway for seamlessly bridging traffic to and from Ethernet-based networks. The Voltaire Grid Director 4036E’s low latency capabilities increase competitive advantage for high frequency trading businesses, where eliminating microseconds can translate into millions of dollars in profits.

The Grid Director 4036E features thirty-four, fully non-blocking 40 Gb/s InfiniBand ports (delivering 2.72 Tb/s), less than 100 nanoseconds of port-to-port latency, and two 1 or 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports bridging traffic in less than two microseconds. The switch is designed as a self-contained complete solution in a compact 1U device. It includes an InfiniBand switch, an embedded subnet manager, and a built-in hardware-based low latency Ethernet gateway, ensuring that I/O bottlenecks are removed and applications operate at maximum efficiency. 

“The Grid Director 4036E takes the pain out of bridging from InfiniBand to Ethernet which is a much-needed capability in many high-performance, enterprise IT environments,” said Asaf Somekh, vice president of marketing, Voltaire.  “This is a game-changing new solution in terms of latency reduction for high frequency trading, as well as a compelling high-performance, low cost storage access and scale-out database solution.”

“Bridging different network protocols requires more than just converting and moving data packets,” Somekh continued. “Voltaire’s 4th generation gateway silicon efficiently maps advanced features, such as accelerated multicast traffic, creating a truly seamless user experience while using standard protocols.”

The Grid Director 4036E delivers improved performance and lowers costs for a variety of enterprise applications:

• Financial Services – Market data feeds typically run multicast traffic over 1 or 10 Gigabit Ethernet which the Grid Director 4036E significantly accelerates by seamlessly mapping it to hardware-based InfiniBand multicast. When used with Voltaire’s Messaging Acceleration (VMA) software, even greater latency reduction can be achieved.  Designed in a space-saving, energy-efficient, 1U form factor, the switch is ideal for co-located low-latency trading environments. 
• High Performance Storage – 10 Gigabit Ethernet storage is used in many industries ranging from energy, to manufacturing and life sciences. The Grid Director 4036E’s built-in gateway seamlessly bridges the InfiniBand cluster to 10 Gigabit Ethernet storage providing maximum bandwidth for each node accessing the storage. It also reduces the overall solution cost by eliminating the need for a dedicated storage network.
• Databases – Clustered or scale-out databases often rely on InfiniBand for the interconnect fabric and 10 Gigabit Ethernet NAS for storage.  The Grid Director 4036E combines the InfiniBand clustering and storage access in one device, simplifying configurations, while boosting performance and reducing costs.

The Grid Director 4036E will be available in late Q1 2010.  More information is available at www.voltaire.com/4036E.

Live Webinar with NYSE Technologies: “Bridging to Sub-Microsecond Latency”
Voltaire is hosting a live webinar event with NYSE Technologies on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, at 11:00 am ET (4:00 pm GMT) detailing how the solution slashes end-to-end trading latency for financial services institutions. Registration for the event is located at www.voltaire.com/Low_Latency_Webinar