Fall Plugfest follows the most successful-to-date Plugfest held last spring where more than 200 cables and devices were tested

DURHAM, N.H. – Sep. 29, 2009 – The InfiniBand® Trade Association (IBTA),
a global organization dedicated to maintaining and furthering the InfiniBand™ specification, today announced the 16th Compliance and Interoperability Plugfest. The Plugfest will take place October 12-16, 2009 in the University of New Hampshire’s Interoperability Lab. The event provides an opportunity for InfiniBand™ device and cable vendors to test their products for compliance with the InfiniBand™ architecture specification, as well as interoperability with other InfiniBand™ products.

This event will include testing of both double data rate (DDR) 20Gb/s devices and quad data rate (QDR) 40Gb/s devices. There is a new test procedure for the recently released 120Gb/s 12x Small Form-Factor Pluggable (CXP) Interface Specification for cables, along with a new memory map test procedure for the EEPROMs included with QSFP and CXP active cables. The updated Wave Dispersion Penalty (WDP) testing will also be included.

The October Plugfest will include interoperability test procedures using Mellanox, QLogic, and Voltaire products. The test procedures ensure that InfiniBand products are both compliant and interoperable, which in turn ensures the trouble-free deployment of InfiniBand clusters. More information on test procedures is available for IBTA members at: http://members.infinibandta.org/apps/org/workgroup/ciwg/documents.php?folder_id=298#folder_298

Plugfest registration is free for IBTA members; non-members need to pay a special fee. More information is available on the IBTA website at: www.infinibandta.org.

The Plugfest program has been a significant contributor to the growth of InfiniBand in both the enterprise data center and the high-performance computing markets. According to the June 2009 TOP500 list, InfiniBand is now the leading server interconnect in the Top100 with 59 clusters. ¹

The Integrators’ List has grown from 115 products in October 2008, to 297 products as of the last Plugfest event in April 2009. End users and OEMs frequently reference this list prior to the deployment of InfiniBand-related systems, including both small clusters and large-scale clusters of 1,000 nodes or more. Many OEMs use this list as a gateway in the procurement process.

Fall Plugfest follows the highly successful Spring ‘09 Plugfest
The Spring ‘09 Plugfest was the most successful in IBTA history with more than 20 cable and device vendors in attendance. During the event, over 200 cables and 14 devices were tested. The number of devices qualifying for inclusion on the Integrators’ List has steadily increased; the list now includes more than 297 products.

Vendors recently adding products to the IBTA Integrators’ List include:  Amphenol, Avago Technologies, Cinch Connectors, Emcore, LSI, Luxtera, Mellanox, Molex, Obsidian Research, Panduit, Quellan Inc (Intersil), Tyco Electronics, Volex, Voltaire and W.L. Gore. Several additional vendors will attend the October 2009 Plugfest, including QLogic, FCI, and Hitachi.

Following Plugfest: OpenFabrics Alliance’s Eighth Interoperability Event
Following the IBTA Plugfest, the OpenFabrics Alliance will be conducting their 8th Interoperability event from Oct. 15-23, 2009. This session will focus on industry-wide interoperability using the OpenFabrics Alliance Software Stack. This event requires separate eligibility, cost, and registration.  For more information, please visit:  http://www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/ofa/events/Invitation_2009-10_OFA.php

IBTA to Celebrate 10-Year Anniversary at Supercomputing 2009
The IBTA will celebrate its 10-year anniversary at Supercomputing 2009 in Portland, Ore. on November 14-20. The IBTA will host InfiniBand demonstrations and an InfiniBand presentation theater. The IBTA invites all attendees to stop by booth number 139 at the show.

About the InfiniBand® Trade Association
The InfiniBand® Trade Association was founded in 1999 and is chartered with maintaining and furthering the InfiniBand specification. The IBTA is led by a distinguished steering committee that includes IBM, Intel, Mellanox, QLogic, Sun, and Voltaire. Other members of the IBTA represent leading enterprise IT vendors who are actively contributing to the advancement of the InfiniBand specification. The IBTA actively markets and promotes InfiniBand from an industry perspective through online, marketing and public relations engagements, and unites the industry through IBTA-sponsored technical events and resources. For more information on the IBTA, visit www.infinibandta.org.

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InfiniBand (TM/SM) is a trademark and service mark of the InfiniBand Trade Association. Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners.

¹ More information on InfiniBand in the TOP500 is available at: http://www.top500.org/connfam/8