Chelsio To Demonstrate 40G SMB Direct RDMA Over Ethernet For Windows Server 2012; Releases Beta Driver For 40G Network Direct

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Chelsio Communications, a leading provider of High Speed Ethernet Unified Wire adapters and ASICs, today announced it will demonstrate 40G SMB Direct performance on its new Terminator 5 (T5) ASIC this week at SNW Spring conference in Orlando, FL.  The demonstration will show Microsoft's Windows Server 2012 SMB Direct running at line-rate 40G using RDMA over Ethernet (iWARP).  

This will be the first demonstration of Chelsio's T5 40G storage technology -- a converged interconnect solution that simultaneously supports all of the networking, cluster and storage protocols.   Chelsio offers a complete suite of drivers for Windows Server 2012, including NDIS, Network Direct for HPC applications, Network Direct Kernel for system services, iSCSI, FCoE and Hyper-V support for virtualized environments, constituting one of the most comprehensive server adapter solutions that can unleash the full value of a Microsoft Windows Server installation.

The iWARP Ethernet RDMA solution fully offloads the host CPU, resulting in a more efficient data center install in a virtualized environment.  SMB-Direct over iWARP RDMA provides higher performance by giving direct access to the data that resides on a remote file server, while the CPU reduction enables a larger number of VMs per server, unlocking CAPEX and OPEX savings in power dissipation, system configuration and deployment scale throughout the life of the installation. 

Additionally, Chelsio is announcing the availability of the beta version of the T5 driver for Network Direct for Windows Server 2012.

"Windows Server 2012 provides breakthrough innovations in storage technology," said Chris Phillips, Partner Director of Program Management, Windows Server and System Center, Microsoft.  "Chelsio's demonstration of line-rate 40G performance with its T5 technology at the SNW Spring conference provides a strong foundation for Windows storage solutions on an Ethernet platform."  

SMB Direct over iWARP RDMA Demonstration
The demonstration at SNW connects Windows Server 2012 systems running as SMB 3.0 clients connecting to another server running as an SMB 3.0 file server, the data being transferred at 40Gb line rate using SMB Direct protocol over iWARP RDMA from the SMB clients to the SMB server.

RDMA over Ethernet (iWARP RDMA)
RDMA over Ethernet (iWARP) is an industry-standard low latency protocol developed by the IETF and supported by the industry's leading 10Gb/40Gb Ethernet adapters.  Since it is built on top of TCP/IP, it is routable and scalable from just a few to thousands of co-located or geographically dispersed endpoints and scales to any data center topology or speed.  It further can work independently of the DCBX protocol, thereby decoupling the server and switch refresh cycles.

Chelsio Unified Wire Adapters
Ideal for all data, storage and high performance clustering applications, Chelsio Unified Wire adapters enable a unified fabric over a single wire by simultaneously running all unmodified IP sockets, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand applications over Ethernet at line rate.  Designed for deployment in virtualized data centers, cloud service installations and high performance computing environments, these Chelsio adapters bring a new level of performance metrics and functional capabilities to the networking space.

About Chelsio Communications, Inc.
Chelsio is a leading technology company focused on solving high performance networking and storage challenges for virtualized enterprise data centers, cloud service installations, and cluster computing environments.  Now shipping its fourth generation protocol acceleration technology, Chelsio is delivering hardware and software solutions including Unified Wire Ethernet network adapter cards, unified storage software, high performance storage gateways, unified management software, bypass cards, and other solutions focused on specialized applications.  Visit the company at www.chelsio.com.

SOURCE Chelsio Communications, Inc.