Products > The PISMO Streaming Server | The FIC-2100 Fabric Switch Interconnect Chip | The FIA-2100 Fabric Interconnect Adapter
The SLS FIA-2100 Fabric Interconnect Adapter allows data center managers to lower the cost of 10 Gigabit-connected server clusters by as much as 75%, distributing the Top of Rack switch function across the fabric of server nodes. The FIA-2100 PCIe card(s) in each server provide switching and routing management via a 80 Gb crossbar switch and ARM-based processors. Effectively, this creates a distributed 10Gbit Ethernet Layer 2 switch. Compared to a traditional Top of Rack Switch topology, the distributed switch approach reduces the number of expensive TOR switch ports, reduces power consumption, and provides redundancy and routing optimization – features especially useful for network-intensive applications such as media streaming and distributed object storage.
Features
- 1 x SFP+ Socket for 1-10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks
- 4 x 10Gb Xaui links for server interconnects
- Supports broadcast, unicast, multicast and control messages
- Enables unicast routing with multi-path routes & annotation for path costs and weights
- Fault-resilient unicast and broadcast routing
- Dynamic link width and speed for power optimization
Benefits:
- Lowers the cost 10Gbps inter/intra-networking by as much as 75%
- Reduces the number of TOR switch ports by 75%
- High bandwidth (80Gbps crossbar switch), low latency (<218ns) fabric
- Configurable fabric engine with IPMI support, partitioning, & dynamic configuration
- Fault Resiliency
- Power Efficiency
- Fabric-Wide Security
Here’s an example of a network topology one would use for a simple web-hosting infrastructure. Additional cards per server would enable a higher level of redundancy.
