Interop News: Mellanox, Marvell, Arista Networks

Interop 2013 is being held this week in Las Vegas, with announcements coming from Mellanox, Marvell, and Arista Networks.  The Interop event conversation can be followed on Twitter hashtag #interop.

Arista named grand winner for Best of Interop

Arista Networks announced it  was named the Best of Interop 2013 winner and the Arista 7500E Modular Data Center Ethernet Switch has won both the Grand Prize and the Networking category, recognizing innovation and technological advancements.

“Arista is honored to be recognized again for delivering the best products in the networking industry. The reception on the Arista 7500E from analysts and customers is beyond our wildest expectations,” said Jayshree Ullal president and CEO for Arista Networks.

Eric Hanselman, chief analyst at 451 Research noted, “The 7500E is the winner in both the Networking and Grand Award categories, and its impressive specs are part of the reason. One of the key pieces of innovation in the 7500E is the embedded optical capability that enables transitions between today’s and tomorrow’s networking needs at a reasonable cost.”

Mellanox announces Ethernet Interconnect and InfiniBand/Ethernet gateway

Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) announced its end-to-end 56 Gigabit Ethernet product line, an Ethernet-based server and storage interconnect solution. The 56GbE solution, consisting of Mellanox’s  ConnectX-3 and ConnectX-3 Pro NICs, SwitchX-2 based SX1024 and SX1036 switches, QSFP+ cables, and acceleration and management software, delivers 40 percent more bandwidth than competing 40GbE solutions, enables higher server density at lower cost, as well as a more efficient network design using less cables and less switches.

“Increasing bandwidth requirements, data volume, data center consolidation and virtualization are driving the demand for faster Ethernet solutions,” said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Utilizing Mellanox’s complete 56GbE solution, companies can gain significant application performance by connecting their storage and server infrastructure with the fastest Ethernet fabric. Furthermore, 56GbE enables the most efficient inter-switch connectivity resulting in lower overall data center capital and operating expenses.”

Mellanox also announced the next step in its Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) strategy, with the availability of an integrated InfiniBand to Ethernet gateway in its SwitchX-based InfiniBand and Ethernet switch systems. Using this new gateway, Mellanox edge switches can now be used for both InfiniBand and Ethernet switching at the same time with an integrated gateway capability between the two networks.

“Mellanox’s new InfiniBand to Ethernet gateway functionality built within Mellanox switches provides the most cost-effective, high-performance solution for data center unified connectivity solutions,” said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox’s systems enable data centers to operate at 56Gb/s network speeds while seamlessly connecting to 1, 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet networks. Existing LAN infrastructures and management practices can be preserved, easing deployment and providing significant return-on-investment.”

Marvell announces ARMADA 375 System-on-Chip

Marvell (MRVL) introduced the Marvell ARMADA 375 System-on-Chip, a dual-core Cortex A9 SoC platform that builds on the highly successful ARMADA 370 and ARMADA XP families of embedded ARM processors for business networking applications. The ARMADA 375 SoC, available in 800 MHz and 1 GHz speed, incorporates a host of I/O peripherals, and is optimized to consume very low power for a wide range of applications. It is designed to integrate a 32-bit DDR3/3L memory controller, a security engine, SATA 2.0 ports and dual PCI-Express interfaces to make system designs simple and economical.

"With the launch of the ARMADA 375, Marvell is setting new standards for SoC system performance and integration at very low power for a dual-core 1 GHz processor," said Ramesh Sivakolundu, vice president and general manager, Connectivity, Servers, Infrastructure Business Unit (CSIBU) at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "We are enabling our customers to address a wide range of performance and cost-sensitive application challenges by leveraging their existing investment in the legacy Marvell ARMADA SoC families."