IBM to release Infiniband chips

IBM yesterday said it is developing a series of chips based on next generation server architecture - Infiniband - which helps speed up links between servers and peripheral devices.

Infiniband, formerly known as System I/O, is an emerging interconnect technology that is being promoted by IBM, Intel, Compaq, Dell and Sun Microsystems. It offers bandwidths of up to 2.5Gbps, and can be used inside servers for inter-processor communications or to link servers to peripherals and storage systems.

The companies claim the new technology will also offer greater performance, lower latency, easier and faster sharing of data, built in security and quality of service, as well as improved usability.

The new form factor of the technology is also designed to make it far easier to add, remove and upgrade than today's shared-bus I/O cards.

IBM's new processors will feature four 2.5Gbps ports that the company claims will quadruple the speed of data being zipped between devices compared with chips that are expected to carry only one port.

Big Blue said it plans to ship the new chips in time for server and adapter manufacturers to market equipment based on Infiniband in the second quarter of next year. It is also sharing preliminary specifications with systems developers to allow them to begin designing systems based on the new technology.

IBM is also developing target and host channel adapter attachments so the technology can be connected to existing PCI-X based peripherals.

Jonathan Eunice, research analyst at US based Illuminata, said: "Infiniband is the right technological advance, emerging at the right time and for all the right reasons." He described the technology as "the industry's answer to the growing I/O problem".Separately, IBM announced that it has tripled the capacity of its small disk drive aimed at portable devices. The drive, which weighs less than 31g and is smaller than a matchbox, now boasts 1Gbyte of data storage or the equivalent of 18 hours of digital music.

It will be available to original equipment manufacturers in July, but customers will be able to buy it direct from retailers from September for about $500 (£333).