Discussion of the Myrinet interconnect and GM

Dan Strahs | 7 Apr 2006 01:15

10-Gigabit ethernet questions


Hi:

I've been thinking about the 10-gigabit products Myricom is developing and 
I have questions that I was hoping might be answerable.

1) Myricom is selling the cards, but what switches are these cards for?

2) The software to support these cards currently is released as a beta 
test. Is the software stable for long-term performance?

3) The performance tests were executed using two nodes, each with two 
dual-core Opterons. Have any performance tests been performed in any 
topology other than two nodes hooked directly to each other?

Thanks!

Dan Strahs

headers

Susan Blackford | 7 Apr 2006 15:02

Re: 10-Gigabit ethernet questions

Dan,

Dan Strahs wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> I've been thinking about the 10-gigabit products Myricom is developing and 
> I have questions that I was hoping might be answerable.
> 
> 1) Myricom is selling the cards, but what switches are these cards for?

Myri-10G NICs are dual-protocol NICs.

They can be used in 10-Gigabit Ethernet mode with your choice of any
commercially available 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch.

Or, they can be used in 10-Gigabit Myrinet mode with a Myri-10G switch.

Myri-10G switches have been displayed at trade shows including SC05
(see http://www.myri.com/news/051121/) and LinuxWorld Boston, but are
not yet listed on the web.

> 
> 2) The software to support these cards currently is released as a beta 
> test. Is the software stable for long-term performance?

Myri10GE (Myri-10G in 10-Gigabit Ethernet mode) software is currently
available in beta release and the official 1.0 regular release is
expected within a few weeks.

MX-10G (Myri-10G in 10-Gigabit Myrinet mode) software is currently

(Continue reading)

headers

Patrick Geoffray | 7 Apr 2006 16:17

Re: 10-Gigabit ethernet questions

Hi Dan,

Just to complete Susan's reply.

Susan Blackford wrote:
>> 1) Myricom is selling the cards, but what switches are these cards for?
> 
> 
> Myri-10G NICs are dual-protocol NICs.

The 10G nics use the same physical link as 10 Gigabit Ethernet (true 
10Gb/s data rate). There are two differences between Ethernet and 
Myrinet at the protocol level:

* Flow control: Myrinet has byte-level backpressure flow control whereas 
Ethernet as Packet-level flow control. In short, Myrinet has little 
buffering in the switch and the sender can be stopped in the middle of 
sending a packet if the packet is blocked somewhere. Ethernet needs to 
be able to buffer a full packet (ie 9000 Bytes jumbo frame) and it uses 
special PAUSE packets to stop the sender.

* Routing: Myrinet routing is source-based and Ethernet routing is 
destination-based. The Ethernet destination MAC address is looked up by 
each crossbar to find the exit port. The Myrinet packet contain the exit 
port to take for each crossbar.

There are 3 types of usage for Myri-10G NICs:

* IT/Storage: Using it as an Ethernet NIC (typically running IP on it), 
plugged in a 10GigE switch from any vendor and an Ethernet NIC. Today,

(Continue reading)

headers

Susan Blackford | 10 Apr 2006 05:25

Re: 10-Gigabit ethernet questions

Hi, Mark,

Mark Hahn wrote:
>>>2) The software to support these cards currently is released as a beta 
>>>test. Is the software stable for long-term performance?
>>
>>Myri10GE (Myri-10G in 10-Gigabit Ethernet mode) software is currently
>>available in beta release and the official 1.0 regular release is
>>expected within a few weeks.
>>
>>MX-10G (Myri-10G in 10-Gigabit Myrinet mode) software is currently
>>available in beta release.
>>
>>There are several Myri-10G customer installations using 10G Myrinet
>>with Myri-10G switches and a beta version of MX-10G.  These
>>installations -- up to 128 nodes -- are seeing good stability and
>>exceptional application performance.
> 
> 
> I'd be interested in some commentary/explanation/guidance from Myri
> regarding 10GE media.  how soon do you expect the new 10GE-over-cat[567]
> to be available, for instance?

According to the following article:

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=10GBASE-T&curtab=2222_1&linktext=10GBASE-T

the final version is expected in Summer 2006.

 From various other resources, Cat-5e, if deployed at all, will certainly

(Continue reading)

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun

					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30

3	May 2007
1	April 2007
5	March 2007
3	January 2007
3	October 2006
8	September 2006
1	August 2006
2	June 2006
5	May 2006
4	April 2006
1	November 2005
2	September 2005
14	July 2005
8	June 2005
1	May 2005
3	April 2005
22	March 2005
5	February 2005
1	January 2005
6	December 2004
4	November 2004
2	October 2004
3	September 2004
4	August 2004
8	July 2004
4	June 2004
17	May 2004
9	April 2004
20	March 2004
7	February 2004
31	January 2004
3	December 2003
4	November 2003
3	October 2003
10	September 2003
2	August 2003
13	July 2003
5	June 2003
9	May 2003
14	April 2003
29	March 2003
48	February 2003
11	January 2003
8	December 2002
25	November 2002
16	October 2002
19	September 2002
5	August 2002
6	July 2002
50	June 2002
11	May 2002
9	April 2002
11	February 2002
35	January 2002
6	December 2001
47	November 2001
35	October 2001
12	September 2001
41	August 2001
12	July 2001
23	June 2001
6	May 2001
11	April 2001
7	March 2001
16	February 2001
35	January 2001
6	December 2000
11	November 2000
14	October 2000
19	September 2000
14	August 2000
10	July 2000
15	June 2000
12	May 2000
14	April 2000
1	March 2000
9	February 2000
7	January 2000
18	December 1999