NVIDIA releases Magnum IO software line to help reduce data bottlenecks for data scientists and AI, HPC researchers

NVIDIA introduced NVIDIA Magnum IO, a suite of software to help data scientists and AI and high performance computing researchers process massive amounts of data in minutes, rather than hours. This offering ahs been developed in close collaboration with vendors in networking and storage, including DataDirect Networks, Excelero, IBM, Mellanox and WekaIO.

Optimized to eliminate storage and input/output bottlenecks, Magnum IO delivers up to 20 times faster data processing for multi-server, multi-GPU computing nodes when working with massive datasets to carry out complex financial analysis, climate modeling and other HPC workloads.

At the heart of Magnum IO is GPUDirect, which provides a path for data to bypass CPUs and travel on “open highways” offered by GPUs, storage and networking devices. Compatible with a wide range of communications interconnects and APIs — including NVIDIA NVLink and NCCL, as well as OpenMPI and UCX — GPUDirect is composed of peer-to-peer and RDMA elements.

Its newest element is GPUDirect Storage, which enables researchers to bypass CPUs when accessing storage and quickly access data files for simulation, analysis or visualization.

Magnum IO integrates infrastructure elements to maximize storage and network I/O performance and functionality. It optimizes IO performance by bypassing the CPU to enable direct IO between GPU memory and network storage. It also relieves CPU contention to create a more balanced GPU-accelerated system and delivers peak IO bandwidth with up to ten times fewer CPU cores, and provides optimized implementation for current and future platforms, whether the data transfers are latency sensitive, bandwidth sensitive, or collectives.

NVIDIA Magnum IO software is available, with the exception of GPUDirect Storage, which is currently available to select early-access customers. Broader release of GPUDirect Storage is planned for the first half of next year.

Mellanox Skyway 200 Gigabit HDR InfiniBand to Ethernet gateway appliance released for high performance and cloud data centers

Mellanox Technologies introduced Mellanox Skyway, a 200 gigabit HDR InfiniBand to Ethernet gateway appliance. Mellanox Skyway enables a scalable and efficient way to connect the high-performance, low-latency InfiniBand data center to external Ethernet infrastructures or connectivity.

Mellanox Skyway is the next generation of the existing 56 gigabit FDR InfiniBand to 40 gigabit Ethernet gateway system, deployed in multiple data centers around the world.

High performance computing, artificial intelligence, data-intensive and cloud infrastructures leverage InfiniBand's high data throughput, extremely low latency, and smart in-network computing acceleration engines to deliver critical application performance and scalability. 

For cases requiring connectivity into external Ethernet-based platforms, Mellanox offers the Skyway appliance, a 1.6 terabit-per-second InfiniBand to Ethernet gateway appliance, supporting eight 100 or 200 gigabit ports on each of the InfiniBand and Ethernet sides. IT managers can scale the number of Skyway appliances over time to meet the demands of their users.

By leveraging the Mellanox Skyway appliance, InfiniBand data centers can maintain their lowest interconnect latency to ensure maximum applications performance. Other non-Ethernet or proprietary network providers offer network-integrated or silicon-integrated gateways to Ethernet, which impose higher interconnect latency within the data center that can reduce the overall data center performance.

Mellanox debuts Quantum LongReach appliance, extends 100G EDR and 200G HDR InfiniBand connectivity to 10 and 40 kilometers

Mellanox Technologies introduced the Mellanox Quantum LongReach series of long-distance InfiniBand switches. Mellanox Quantum LongReach systems provide the ability to seamlessly connect remote InfiniBand data centers together, or to provide high-speed and full RDMA (remote direct memory access) connectivity between remote compute and storage infrastructures.

Based on the 200 gigabit HDR Mellanox Quantum InfiniBand switch, the LongReach solution provides up to two long-reach InfiniBand ports and eight local InfiniBand ports. The long reach ports can deliver up to 100Gb/s data throughput for distances of 10 and 40 kilometers.

With Quantum LongReach users can connect remote InfiniBand based data centers together to create a single virtual data center, effectively combining the compute power of multiple distributed data centers for higher overall performance and scalability. With LongReach, users can leverage the In-Network Computing capabilities such as the Scalable Hierarchical Aggregation and Reduction Protocol (SHARP), congestion control, enhanced telemetry and more between the multiple remote data centers.

Built with Mellanox Quantum InfiniBand switch device, the Mellanox Quantum LongReach solution provides up to 2 EDR InfiniBand long-reach ports and 8 HDR InfiniBand ports, delivering up to 100Gb/s data throughput for distances of 10 and 40 kilometers. 

Using Mellanox Quantum LongReach extends availability of InfiniBand’s high data throughput, native Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) communications and advanced routing and Mellanox Scalable Hierarchical Aggregation and Reduction Protocol (SHARP) to remote InfiniBand platforms, with a distance of 10 and 40 kilometers between them. 

Mellanox MLNX-OS chassis management software stack provides administrative tools to manage firmware, power supplies, fans, ports, and other system interfaces. Mellanox Quantum LongReach software has a GUI-based web management that provides full alarm, event history, activities log and performance monitoring for all optical modules.

Quantum LongReach systems can also be coupled with Mellanox’s Unified Fabric Manager (UFM) software for managing scale-out computing environments. UFM enables data center operators to efficiently provision, monitor and operate the modern data center fabric.

It also seamlessly migrates user applications from one data center to another to support different user demands, to provide load balancing between InfiniBand data centers, or to provide continuous compute services in cases of data-center failures, while enabling fast and efficient connectivity between remote compute and storage infrastructures, enabling fast disaster recovery and more.

“The Mellanox Quantum LongReach appliance enables native InfiniBand connectivity between remote InfiniBand-based data centers, or between data center and remote storage infrastructure, allowing users to enjoy native RDMA, in-network computing acceleration engines, congestion control and other InfiniBand technology advantages globally,” said Gilad Shainer, senior vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Our existing and new customers, who wish to expand their clusters seamlessly over local and distributed InfiniBand networks that are kilometers apart, will find Mellanox Quantum LongReach to be the best cost-effective and easily managed solution.”

The Quantum LongReach series comprises two models: MTQ8100, which delivers 100Gb/s throughput up to 10 kilometers; and MTQ8200, which delivers 100Gb/s throughput up to 40 kilometers. The products will be available in the first half of next year.