COMPETITIVE BRIEF
QLogic
®
DDR HCA Advantage
HPC Applications Show Best Performance with QLogic DDR HCAs
Industry Challenges
As high performance computer clusters grow to address
problems of increasing complexity in market segments like
oil and gas, education, and computational fluid dynamics,
the communication requirements between processing nodes
increase dramatically. This increase creates more messaging
traffic, making HCA interconnect performance crucial.
Performance of adapters used in HPC clusters/nodes is measured
by means of five key metrics: point-to-point latency, bandwidth,
and message rate; scalable latency, and scalable message rate.
Adapters that perform well on all of these key metrics allow
processing of designs and simulations in less time, resulting in
optimal efficiency and better profitability for the end user.
QLogic DDR HCA Advantage
Performance that Scales •
QLogic provides the best DDR adapter solution
for MPI based applications. Table 1 compares
key metrics for HCA performance for QLogic and
Mellanox. Note that QLogic has the best message
rate and scalable latency in the industry.
Power Efficiency with Extended Warranty •
QLogic’s HCA simplified design uses less on-board
components and therefore consumes less than
6.0W (typical). QLogic HCAs are backed with a
three-year warranty at no extra charge.
Best Linux Software Support of any HCA •
Driver distribution is part of OFED and is also
included in the Linux
®
distribution kernel.org.
QLogic provides full software support.
Competitor's Shortfalls
Mellanox’s HCAs Do Not Scale Linearly •
Mellanox and QLogic’s HCA were tested in both medium
and large clusters. Unlike QLE72xx adapters, as processing
nodes were added to the cluster, the message rate for the
Mellanox HCAs did not scale.
Power Hungry Design with Limited Warranty •
The Mellanox HCA adapter uses more components than the
QLogic DDR adapter and consumes almost twice the power
(11.6W). The standard Mellanox warranty is one year.
Limited Real-Time Linux Software Support •
Mellanox software driver bug fixes rely on the support of the
open source community. Fixes are incorporated when OFED
adopts the new software.
Key Metric QLE72x0 DDR
x8 | x16
ConnectX™ DDR
Gen1 | Gen2
Point-to-Point
Bandwidth
1.50 | 1.95 GBps 1.55 | 1.90 GBps
Point-to-Point
Message
Rate
19 | 26
Millions of
Messages per second
8 ppn
6 | 6
Millions of
Messages per second
4 ppn (worse at 8 ppn)
Scalable
Latency
1.3 µs 2.3 µs
Table 1. QLogic vs. Mellanox, Key Metrics
QLogic® DDR HCA Advantage HPC Applications Show Best Performance with QLogic DDR HCAs
COMPETITIVE BRIEF
Corporate Headquarters QLogic Corporation 26650 Aliso Viejo Parkway Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 949.389.6000 www.qlogic.com
Europe Headquarters QLogic (UK) LTD. Quatro House Lyon Way, Frimley Camberley Surrey, GU16 7ER UK +44 (0) 1276 804 670
© 2008 QLogic Corporation. Specifications are subject to change without notice. All rights reserved worldwide. QLogic and the QLogic logo are registered trademarks of QLogic Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Mellanox is a registered
trademark and ConnectX is a trademark of Mellanox Technologies, Inc All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information supplied by QLogic Corporation is believed to be accurate and reliable. QLogic
Corporation assumes no responsibility for any errors in this brochure. QLogic Corporation reserves the right, without notice, to make changes in product design or specifications.
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