High-speed, wide-band crossbar switch

To maximize the performance of SPARC64™ V, the system uses high-speed interconnection technology developed for supercomputers for itshigh-speed, wide-band crossbar switch. The CPU, memory, I/O, and system boards, are linked with these crossbar switches, allowing direct connection of multiple CPUs and memory. The result is broad bandwidth, low latency, high-speed data transfer. PRIMEPOWER 2500, the flagship model, provides exceptional throughput at up to 133 GB/s.

Incorporating high-speed, wide-band crossbar switches, PRIMEPOWER provides the ideal platform for OLTP (on-line transaction process), data warehousing, and application services that require high performance.

The L1 crossbar switch links CPUs, memory, and I/O directly in one-to-one relationships that control data transfers between the CPU and memory. This permits multiple CPUs to access memory at the same time, significantly increasing data transfer efficiency.

Two-layered crossbar switch connections are used withh models with multiple system boards. The CPU, memory, and I/O on each system board are connected by L1 crossbar switches, while the system boards themselves are interconnected by L2 crossbar switches.

Such two-layered crossbar switch connections permit any CPU to access any memory in the same way, no matter where the respective memory is mounted. Minimized distances between system boards, reduced latency, and cable-less connections all mean high performance and availability.

The PRIMEPOWER 2500. for example, is configured with two pairs of L2 crossbar switches, each providing transfer rates of 66.6 GB/s. Should one of the crossbar switch pairs fail, the defective crossbar switch is isolated when the server is restarted, allowing the server to continue operating.