Myrinet System Interconnect Guide

1.2 Backplane and chassis types

The Myrinet interconnect used in an HP Cluster Platform can be a 5U (64-port)

or 9U (128-port) chassis. The backplane (Figure 1-2) provides connectivity for

the 8-port switch cards.

Figure 1-2: Myrinet System Interconnect Backplane

For configurations greater than 128 total nodes, you must build the network out

to increase the number of available ports and to maintain the cross-sectional

bandwid th . You accomplish this by con n ectin g additional switches toget her in a

hierarchical manner (Figure 1-3). This type of configuration is called a federated

configuration. A federated configuration contains two types of Myrinet system

interconnects:

• Node-level switch

• Top-level switch

Figure 1-3: Federated Configuration Switches

Top-Level Chassis Node-Level Chassis

Monitor Line Card

Switch Cards

10/100 LAN

76543210

Monitor Line Card

Switch Cards

10/100 LAN

Switch Cards

76543210

1-2 Myrinet interconnect overview