OpenFabrics
Mellanox Infiniband Auto-negotiation Specification
UNH-IOL, in partnership with the OpenFabrics Alliance, is pleased to
host the publication of Mellanox Technologies’
Mellanox IB DDR Auto-negotiation Protocol Rev 1.0 for devices compliant with the InfiniBand Architecture
Specification, Release 1.1 to facilitate IB interoperability.
The OpenFabrics Alliance (OFA)
The OpenFabrics Alliance promotes the development of next-generation, high-speed communication links between computers. "Open" refers to the organization's commitment to open-source software, while "fabric" refers loosely to a local-area network from the transport layer down. "High-speed" is currently taken to mean 10 Gbps and higher. Speed improvement is achieved through the use of RDMA (remote direct memory access), which allows computers to read from and write to each other's memory, removing a large burden from both computers' CPUs.
The OFA currently promotes two fabric technologies: InfiniBand and iWARP. InfiniBand is a popular fabric for clustered supercomputers. iWARP runs over conventional Internet/Ethernet networks. Any program written according to OFA standards will run without changes on either an InfiniBand fabric or an iWARP fabric.
While the UNH-IOL hosts an iWARP Consortium, our involvement with InfiniBand and the OFA in general takes a different form, as described next.
The OpenFabrics Alliance Interoperability Working Group (OFA-IWG)
Among the several
working groups within the OFA is the
Interoperability Working Group (OFA-IWG). This working group develops interoperability tests for OpenFabrics devices. All members of the OFA are welcome to participate in that development process without paying additional fees beyond their OFA membership dues.
OpenFabrics Interoperability Logo Group (OFILG)
OFILG Logo
Vendors who wish to advertise their OpenFabrics devices as interoperable with other vendors' OpenFabrics devices can pay an additional fee to participate in interoperability test events held at the UNH-IOL. These test events are based on the interoperability tests developed by the Interoperability Working Group mentioned above. Devices qualified to bear the logo are listed on our OFILG Logo List.
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