Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • PC Hardware

    Infiniband Future Up in Air as Intel Withdraws

    By
    eWEEK EDITORS
    -
    June 3, 2002
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Intel Corp.s decision to abandon its 2-year-old plan to produce Infiniband hardware will have a far-reaching effect on other companies efforts to bring the emerging high-speed I/O technology into the mainstream.

      Although major manufacturers such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. have no plans to scrap their respective Infiniband-enabled rollouts set for this year, IT managers and industry analysts say Intels withdrawal has clouded the outlook for a technology International Data Corp. once predicted would appear in 80 percent of servers by 2005.

      “Intels decision is concerning to me in that it could be a big setback,” said Joe Gottron, CIO for Huntington Bancshares Inc., in Columbus, Ohio. Gottron said such a high-speed I/O will be needed to eliminate a data transfer bottleneck between servers in data centers. “I see Intel as a driver of new technology, as they have been with other standards, so its disappointing to hear theyve pulled back,” he said.

      Other IT professionals agree that Intels decision doesnt bode well.

      “We talked to Intel a little more than a year ago about Infiniband, but I guess theyre not so sure about it anymore,” said Urs Hölzle, a Google Inc. fellow who served as the search engine companys first vice president of engineering. “Its never good if Intel walks away, at least psychologically.”

      Intel, as a founding member of the Infiniband Trade Association in 1999, has played a critical role in helping design and develop the new fabric-based I/O technology, which early proponents said would one day replace commonly used bus-based I/O architectures, such as PCI (which was developed by Intel). Underscoring its commitment, Intel, of Santa Clara, Calif., had planned to manufacture three silicon products for Infiniband: a host channel adapter, an Infiniband switch and a target channel adapter.

      Infiniband is a channel-based, switched-fabric architecture that provides a scalable performance range of 500MB per second to 6GB per second per link. But optimism over the technology has diminished recently with the emergence of a fast next-generation PCI, called PCI-X, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, as well as improvements in storage connectivity technologies, such as Fibre Channel and iSCSI.

      Intel officials announced last week that in a cost-cutting move, the chip maker has dropped its plans to produce those products. Instead, Intel will focus on its core business, including enterprise chip sets for servers and workstations.

      While Intel officials insisted that the companys decision would not hurt Infiniband, its withdrawal will certainly result in Infiniband becoming, at best, only a small niche player, one analyst said.

      “I regarded the announcement as Intel is killing Infiniband, but it didnt want to say it that way,” said Peter Glaskowski, of In-Stat/MDR, in Sunnyvale, Calif.

      However, officials at another founding member of the Infiniband trade group, IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., said the company remains committed to the I/O, as does Infiniband developer Voltaire Inc., of Bedford, Mass.

      Voltaire officials said that while Intels pullout is unfortunate, companies creating Infiniband products were not planning to wait for the chip maker, which has fallen behind in developing Infiniband silicon.

      eWEEK EDITORS
      eWeek editors publish top thought leaders and leading experts in emerging technology across a wide variety of Enterprise B2B sectors. Our focus is providing actionable information for today’s technology decision makers.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×