Specifications

Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 49
Draft Document for Review May 12, 2014 12:46 pm 5102ch02.fm
2.5.8 InfiniBand Host Channel adapter
The InfiniBand Architecture (IBA) is an industry-standard architecture for server I/O and
inter-server communication. It was developed by the InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) to
provide the levels of reliability, availability, performance, and scalability necessary for present
and future server systems with levels significantly better than can be achieved using
bus-oriented I/O structures.
InfiniBand (IB) is an open set of interconnect standards and specifications. The main IB
specification is published by the InfiniBand Trade Association and is available at:
http://www.infinibandta.org/
InfiniBand is based on a switched fabric architecture of serial point-to-point links, where these
IB links can be connected to either host channel adapters (HCAs), used primarily in servers,
or target channel adapters (TCAs), used primarily in storage subsystems.
The InfiniBand physical connection consists of multiple byte lanes. Each individual byte lane
is a four-wire, 2.5, 5.0, or 10.0 Gbps bidirectional connection. Combinations of link width and
byte lane speed allow for overall link speeds from 2.5 Gbps to 120 Gbps. The architecture
defines a layered hardware protocol and also a software layer to manage initialization and the
communication between devices. Each link can support multiple transport services for
reliability and multiple prioritized virtual communication channels.
For more information about InfiniBand, see HPC Clusters Using InfiniBand on IBM Power
Systems Servers, SG24-7767.
A connection to supported InfiniBand switches is accomplished by using the QDR optical
cables #3290 and #3293.
Table lists the available InfiniBand adapters.
Table 2-15 Available Infiniband adapters
2.5.9 Asynchronous and USB adapters
Asynchronous PCIe adapters provide connection of asynchronous EIA-232 or RS-422
devices. If you have a cluster configuration or high-availability configuration and plan to
connect the IBM Power Systems using a serial connection, you can use the features listed in
Table 2- 16.
Table 2-16 Available Asynchronous and USB adapters
Feature
code
CCIN Description Maximum
with one
processor
installed
Maximum
with two
processors
installed
OS support
5283 58E2 PCIe2 LP Dual-Port 4X
IB QDR adapter 40 Gb
5 8 AIX, Linux
Feature
code
CCIN Description Maximum
with one
processor
installed
Maximum
with two
processors
installed
OS support
EC45 PCIe2 LP 4-Port USB 3.0
Adapter
5 8 AIX, Linux