Comments on: Information required on 10Gigabit Ethernet cards

By: petkoa

petkoa — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:34:21 +0000

Commodity HPC clusters would make use of 10Gb Ethernet, if the 10Gb hardware will be much cheaper than Infiniband (and all chances are it will be).

Petko

By: martin78

martin78 — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:36:00 +0000

All performance will increase until the micron sized channel becomes the limiting factor. 10G is excellent if virtualized server clusters, when virtual servers on separate boxes exchange inputs/outputs as part of a larger system (Application and their respective Databases/Indexing operations). Using 10G is more of a local event (Data Center centric) and unless you can afford an OC192 speed WAN, outside the data center is impractical “AT THIS TIME.” (I remember when T1 circuits were the absolute in speed). CPU and bus speeds will increase and this will pust the need for the upcoming 40G/100G switching on the horizon. As far as moving parts go, solid state drives have no moving parts. The curent limiting factor is becoming the conversion from optical to electrical and back.

By: hannahdrake

hannahdrake — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:56:08 +0000

Hi,

Great questions. I sent them in to SearchDataCenter.com’s networking expert Carrie Higbie, Global Network Applications Market Manager for The Siemon Company. Although she normally only answers questions that are sent in through our Ask The Experts site, she thought they were great questions, and answered them all!

You’ll find her answers here:

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/ateQuestionNResponse/0,289625,sid80_cid953424_tax301483,00.html

Hope that helps.

Hannah Drake
Assistant Editor
SearchDataCenter.com

By: astronomer

astronomer — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 11:52:23 +0000

I see 10G as the next logical step in the network backbone which will eventually filter down to servers and workstations. I don’t see doing it server to server at this time unless you have unique needs. We currently have our main windows servers connected to a 1G switch.

From the backup statistics it seems clear our silicon mechanics “backup server” can handle anything our other servers throw at it. We normally sustain a little over 600M from our fastest servers. In a few years we should see servers pushing past 1G but until then I don’t see the point in investing in 10G to the server.

On the other hand, your backbone may well need more than 1G already. Check your utilization. Verify the need before spending the money.
rt

By: astronomer

astronomer — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 11:52:23 +0000

On the other hand, your backbone may well need more than 1G already. Check your utilization. Verify the need before spending the money.
rt

By: petermac

petermac — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 11:09:35 +0000

Can think of a few applications where it would be useful. Most Linux/Unix systems make far better use of memory than Windows, and running repetative memory / comms applications can easily outpace even a 10Gig card. Remember Ethernet speed is Bits per second, motherboard speed (on newer processors) is 64 bits wide so a 400MHZ FSB system is roughly eqivalent to a 30GB card in terms of data movement. Web Crawlers, and Spammers will love this card.
Also any congested network will benefit from using it, as there will be lots of small messages moving around, and even if it makes little difference on an individual basis the reduction in message times will free up a considerable amount of network time for other use.
As to price, like any other comodity, whatever the market will bear. for some people even 10 times the price of a 1GB card will seem cheep, I doubt if many would be prepared to pay even double at the moment though.

By: larrythethird

larrythethird — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:27:03 +0000

Until you have a computer with no moving parts, hard drives or tapes, you cannot push enough data through a 1 gig card to use it’s full capabilities. The best servers can burst up to about 600 meg. Only a backup could sustain any data transfer that gets close to that. At this time, 10 gig is for switch to switch.