Force10 Networks demonstrates market-ready 40 Gigabit Ethernet systems at Supercomputing 2010

NOVEMBER 15, 2010 -- Force10 Networks Inc. is exhibiting 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) solutions in booth #3439 at the Supercomputing 2010 (SC10) conference through November 18 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Force10 switches also are demonstrating the ability of Ethernet to help provide high performance, flexibility, and cost effectiveness in converged data center fabric environments.

"Our participation in many activities at SC10 illustrates our strong commitment to delivering interoperable, cost-effective Ethernet solutions for the converged data center," says Arpit Joshipura, chief marketing officer, Force10 Networks. "By demonstrating line-rate 40 GbE solutions in a collaborative environment, we anticipate that SC10 attendees will walk away clearly understanding that 40 GbE is market-ready to solve today's performance needs while helping to curb growing data center complexity."

During SC10, the Force10 S-Series 4810 top-of-rack switch is showcased as part of a multi-vendor, multi-technology display in the Ethernet Alliance (EA) booth. The demonstration features equipment from several vendors, showing how 40 GbE is already market-ready to support high-performance networking technologies, as well as converged traffic, including, iSCSI, iWARP, RoCE, and others.

To ensure the network would be processing traffic in a manner realistic to a production data center environment, the EA enlisted the expertise of Ixia, a provider of high-speed, multi-port network performance analysis systems. Utilizing Ixia's testing platforms makes it possible for Force10 to verify non-blocking, line-rate performance in this scenario, says a spokesperson.

"Utilizing the EA's sophisticated test bed to simulate real-world environments demonstrates Force10's ability to deliver performance that can be reliably obtained in the data center," says David Schneider, senior manager of market development at Ixia and marketing chairman of the EA's Higher Speed Ethernet sub-committee. "Force10's market-ready switch, with 40 GbE interfaces, will be an essential component in the next generation data center and the HSE ecosystem."

Force10 S4810 switches also are providing ToR functionality as part of network assembled by SCinet participants at SC10. SCinet is a temporary exhibition network built to demonstrate very high performance (300+ Gbps). Some of Force10's most long-standing customers in the HPC market are participating, including CERN, University of Tokyo, NASA, and Los Alamos and Brookhaven laboratories.

Force10's S4810 switch also is part of a multi-vendor exhibit in the Caltech booth that demonstrates work on global data distribution, analysis, and visualization of LHC proton-proton collisions in a new energy region.