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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: InfiniBand flies - Getting data from point A to point B as swiftly as possible is now job No. 1.(Column)
Electrons travel at the speed of light, and processors, buses, and networks need to catch up.
Boosting throughput inside systems has become a priority in entry-level servers, and progress is evident in system designs from AMD, Apple Computer, and Intel. But maximizing throughput between servers -- and between servers and peripherals -- has been considered less critical. Extremely high-speed external interconnects -- the kinds that make Fibre Channel and 10 Gigabit Ethernet seem like smoke signals -- do exist, but they suffer from several problems: They're expensive and poorly supported by applications and operating systems. But the biggest barrier is that IT mostly …
