[Info-vax] State of the Port - July 2017

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On Behalf Of
> johnson.eric--- via Info-vax
> Sent: July 19, 2017 6:45 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: johnson.eric at gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] State of the Port - July 2017
> 
> On Tuesday, July 18, 2017 at 5:27:21 PM UTC-4, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> 
> > Infiniband is designed for low latency.  If what you need is the
lowest
> > possible latency, Infiniband is likely a big win over ethernet.  If
you
> > need fastest throughput for bulk transfers, ethernet is likely a big
win
> > for you instead.
> 
> That was certainly true in the past. But I believe that gap has been
> narrowed substantially over the past decade such that its no longer
> the slam dunk it once was.
> 
> EJ

Still a huge win for latency when using Infiniband and RoCEV2 (RDMA over
ethernet).

RDMA bypasses the entire TCPIP stack altogether.

Reference: See page 2.
<http://www.mellanox.com/related-docs/whitepapers/roce_in_the_data_cente
r.pdf>

In terms of capability, check out what the Infiniband crews are up to
lately: June 30, 2017
<
https://www.nextplatform.com/2017/06/30/infiniband-proprietary-networks-
still-rule-real-hpc/>

In addition, from what I understand (read pure speculation) the new
RoCEV2 spec that came out in 2014 timeframe provides a lot of
compatibility with existing drivers, so may not require all that much
work to adapt for cluster communications i.e. high bandwidth, very low
latency.


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com