Card and Switch Technology

• Myrinet: Cards and Switches are expensive:

  • Cards O(1000) $, switches O(400) $ per port
  • Network cost for 1000 nodes: O(1.4) M$

• GigE cards: either on-board or as 64 bit PCI cards:

  • single ($40), dual ($150) or quad ($400)

• New development: FPGA card with up to 8 ports (FNAL)

  • 32/33 now
  • PCI-X later
  • $ 500
  • saturates GigE mesh