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Effective parallel computing requires high-bandwidth, low-latency internode
communications. The SP Switch, recommended for high-performance
commercial computing, provides a one-way bandwidth of up to 150 MB per
second between nodes (300 MB bidirectional) for interconnecting all node types.
The SP Switch2, recommended for high-performance technical computing,
provides a one-way bandwidth of up to 500 MB per second between nodes (1
GB bidirectional) for interconnecting POWER3 high nodes.
The SP Switch Router is a high-performance I/O gateway that provides the
fastest available means of communication between the SP system and the
outside world or among multiple SP systems. This SP gateway combines the
Lucent GRF with the IBM SP Switch Router adapter to enable direct network
attachment to the SP Switch. Other media cards connect to a variety of standard
external networks. Each media card has its own hardware engine, enabling SP
I/O to scale nearly one-to-one with the number of cards.
The SP system can also scale disk I/O nearly one-to-one with processors and
memory making access to terabytes of data possible and expansions or
upgrades easier to manage. If you outgrow your existing system, you can readily
add increments of computing power.
The RS/6000 SP system, as a cluster of SP processor nodes, managed by the
AIX operating system and PSSP management software from the CWS, is the
first step to universal clustering.
Managed by the AIX and PSSP from the CWS, ^ pSeries and RS/6000
Enterprise Servers, can function as SP-attached servers on an SP system, using
the connectivity provided by the SP Switch or the LAN. The exceptional
performance of these servers is especially impressive for online transaction
processing applications. With their large, single node data capacity, they are also
well-suited to the tasks associated with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
Plus, their excellent query capability is ideal for today’s business intelligence
applications. These characteristics combined make the SP-attached servers an
excellent third-tier choice for data storing and for a three-tier e-business
environments where POWER3 SMP nodes or 332 MHz SMP nodes are used as
the middle tier.
Managed by the AIX and PSSP from the CWS, ^ pSeries and RS/6000
Enterprise Servers, can be defined as Clustered Enterprise Servers (CES) on a
Clustered ^ pSeries system (CES system). The CES system contains
pSeries servers and RS/6000 servers only. The connectivity is provided by the
SP Switch or the LAN. Mission-critical enterprise applications such as ERP, Web
serving, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship
Management (CRM), e-business, Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), and
business-intelligence may be managed by a CES system.
Chapter 1. Introduction 3