Abstract

The InfiniBand interconnect has received a great deal of attention recently as a result of its use in the Virginia Tech cluster that placed 3rd on the Top500 list. However, InfiniBand hardware and software have been available for over a year and continue to evolve. In addition, InfiniBand is supported by a number of different vendors each of which is seeking to differentiate themselves in the marketplace with slightly different hardware and software offerings. This paper will examine many of the current hardware and software implementations, illustrating their similarities and differences. In addition we will demonstrate the sometimes dramatic effects of the various tuning parameters of the various software implementations.