Mellanox Contribute its 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch Specification to the Open Compute Project

14 November, 2013

“Since its inception, Mellanox has been a leading contributor to the Open Compute Project delivering our ConnectX-3 EN 10GbE server adapters and cables to the OCP ecosystem"

The Open Compute Project launched a new network project focused on developing an OS-agnostic top-of-the-rack switch

The provider of high-performance interconnect solutions, Mellanox Technologies, from Yoqneam, Israel, announced it is offering its SwitchX-2 Top-of-Rack switch as a proposed contribution to the Open Compute Project. By open sourcing the designs for the switch, Mellanox hopes to accelerate innovation and a focus on efficiency and scale in data center technologies.

The SwitchX-2 Top-of-Rack switch supports 48 10GbE SFP+ ports and 12 40GbE QSFP+ ports, enabling non-blocking connectivity within the OCP’s Open Rack, or alternatively, enabling 60 10GbE server ports when using QSFP+ to SFP+ breakout cables to increase rack efficiency for less bandwidth demanding applications. The new switch is also the first that supports Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) over x86 processors, which will enable new levels of scalability and performance.

SwitchX-2“Since its inception, Mellanox has been a leading contributor to the Open Compute Project delivering our ConnectX-3 EN 10GbE server adapters and cables to the OCP ecosystem,” said Kevin Deierling, vice president of marketing, Mellanox Technologies. “We are pleased to extend our support and ongoing contribution to OCP Network Project. We believe that the OCP standards will help more companies to build efficient solutions for the emerging web applications.”

In May 2013, the Open Compute Project launched a new network project focused on developing an OS-agnostic top-of-the-rack switch. Accompanied by an open source boot loader defined by ONIE, any switch vendor can port its networking Operating System to the open switch specifications being developed by the OCP community. The software interfaces to the switching hardware is defined by Open Ethernet Switching (OES) API, a generic and standard interface for fast path hardware acceleration.

Along with the switching API, Mellanox is collaborating with the OCP community to define unified and open drivers for the OCP switch hardware components. Mellanox shares the OCP network project’s vision by joining forces with key companies to bring ONIE over PPC and x86, and OES and OEP packages to the OCP framework.

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