HPCwire Sponsor Background, Myricom

Myricom is the world's leading supplier of high-performance, high-availability, cluster interconnect, and a pioneer in the development of cluster computing. The Myrinet network architecture that Myricom introduced in 1994 is particularly efficient for clusters for two related reasons: (1) the use of processors and firmware in the network-interface cards (NICs) for protocol offload and for low-latency, kernel-bypass operation; and (2) economical, highly scalable, cut-through switching, in which routes are predetermined at the source.

There are today many thousands of Myrinet clusters in operation in more than 50 countries. These clusters range in size to more than 2,000 hosts. You will find Myrinet clusters used for high-performance computing (HPC) applications throughout the TOP500 supercomputer list (www.top500.org): 101 (20.2%) of the November-2005 TOP500 systems use Myrinet technology, far more than any other low-latency technology. Myrinet is also widely used in commercial and embedded-computing applications.

Myricom now also supplies high-performance 10-Gigabit Ethernet products, including the highest throughput 10-Gigabit Ethernet NICs on the market.

Myrinet Components and Software

Ever since Myricom's 1994 founding, it has been a premise of our business that we will supply all that is required – NICs, software, switches, and link cables – to build a high-performance cluster from a collection of high-performance host computers. You or an integrator install the NICs and software in the hosts, and connect the network with switches and cables. The software maps the network, and uses whatever communication paths are available from host to host. No switch programming or routing-table configuration is necessary.

Myricom currently supplies Myrinet components and software in two series: Myrinet-2000 and Myri-10G. Myrinet-2000 is a superior alternative to Gigabit Ethernet for clusters, whereas Myri-10G offers performance and cost advantages over 10-Gigabit Ethernet. Myri-10G uses the same physical layers (PHYs: cables, connectors, signaling) as 10-Gigabit Ethernet, and is highly interoperable with 10-Gigabit Ethernet. In fact, Myri-10G NICs can be used either as 10-Gigabit Myrinet NICs or as 10-Gigabit Ethernet NICs.

Product series	Myrinet-2000	Myri-10G
Full-duplex data rate for the links, NIC ports, and switch ports	2+2 Gigabits/s	10+10 Gigabits/s
Link cables	LC-connectorized duplex multimode fiber to 200m	Selected 10-Gigabit Ethernet cables, copper and fiber
NICs	Single-port and dual-port PCI-X	Single-port PCI-Express, dual-protocol 10G Myrinet or 10G Ethernet
Switches	Based on 16-port and 32-port crossbar switches	Based on 16-port crossbar switches
Switch networks	Up to 256 host ports with a single "Network in a Box" component, and up to tens of thousands of hosts by combining these components	Up to 128 host ports with a single "Network in a Box" component, and up to tens of thousands of hosts by combining these components
Interoperability	Gigabit Ethernet	10-Gigabit Ethernet
Myricom software support	Myrinet Express (MX-2G) or GM-2	10-Gigabit Ethernet driver or Myrinet Express (MX-10G)
MX or MPI latency	2.6µs–3.2µs	2µs
MX unidirectional data rate	247 MBytes/s (one-port NICs) 495 MBytes/s (two-port NICs)	1.2 GBytes/s
TCP/IP or MX ethernet emulation data rate	1.98 Gbits/s (one-port NICs) 3.95 Gbits/s (two-port NICs)	9.6 Gbits/s

Myrinet-2000 and Myri-10G in Myrinet mode employ the same Myrinet (layer-2) network architecture and protocols, and, when used with MX software support, are fully compatible with respect to applications and application-programming interfaces. Myri-10G in Ethernet mode is compliant with relevant IEEE-802.3 standards, and is fully interoperable with 10-Gigabit Ethernet products of other companies.

Myricom supplies all Myrinet software open-source, and provides Myrinet software – drivers, the firmware that executes in the NICs, and the API libraries and middleware – for:

HP UX software support is provided by HP as part of HP's HyperFabric product offerings. (HP HyperFabric is Myrinet, developed and produced for HP by Myricom.) VxWorks software support is handled by CSPI. Alternative Myrinet software is available from other sources, such as the PC Cluster Consortium.

The legacy, low-level, Myricom-supported, software and firmware for Myrinet-2000/PCI-X NICs is GM-2, an evolution of the GM message-passing system that is in use today in thousands of Myrinet clusters. In June 2005, Myricom released Myrinet Express (MX) software for Myrinet-2000/PCI-X NICs. MX is a new, low-level, message-passing system that provides lower latency than GM, and is the standard Myrinet software support for the Myri-10G products. GM and MX also include "ethernet emulation," support for all protocols that run over Ethernet, including TCP/IP and UDP/IP.

Myricom provides a choice of "middleware" layers above the low-level APIs, including:

These "middleware" layers are typically zero-copy, and take full advantage of GM's and MX's kernel-bypass mode of operation.

Myricom also supplies a suite of test and diagnostic programs for Myrinet networks.

Myrinet clusters are used for a remarkably wide variety of applications. We list here only a few of the best known:

Myrinet-2000: Myrinet-2000 has more than double the data-rate performance of Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), one tenth the latency, much lower host-CPU overhead, and a wealth of high-availability and data-integrity features that are lacking in Ethernet. Application performance with Myrinet-2000 on moderately tightly coupled applications averages 40% higher than the performance with Gigabit Ethernet (see this press release). Nevertheless, the cost of Myrinet-2000 components to interconnect a cluster of 256 hosts is comparable to that of GbE. For clusters with more than 256 hosts, the total cost of Myrinet-2000 components is less than that of GbE.

Myri-10G: For 10-Gigabit Ethernet applications, Myri-10G NICs are both the lowest cost and highest performance NICs on the market. Myricom intends to maintain this price- and performance-leading stance in the future. For 10-Gigabit Myrinet applications, Myri-10G provides nearly 5 times higher user-level throughput than Myrinet-2000, and somewhat lower latency, at prices that are approximately twice those of Myrinet-2000. In clustering and data-center applications in which 10-Gigabit Ethernet is a candidate, Myri-10G in Myrinet mode is signficantly less expensive than 10-Gigabit Ethernet due to the lower cost of Myri-10G switches. With Myri-10G in Myrinet mode you can unleash the capabilities of a low-latency network that supports all of the same software interfaces as Ethernet, plus low-latency, kernel-bypass APIs for Sockets, MPI, and DAPL. Also, 10-Gigabit Myrinet is interoperable with 10-Gigabit Ethernet for connections to IP networks and storage.

Myrinet is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Standard -- ANSI/VITA 26-1998. The link and routing specifications are public, published, and open. Myricom's Myrinet products conform to many other hardware and software standards, including PCI, and the APIs of all of the software interfaces.

Product quality and reliability have also contributed to Myrinet's success. The MTBF of current-production Myrinet-2000/PCI-X NICs is more than 5 million hours, and the MTBF of Myrinet-2000 switches and switch networks is more than 5 million hours per port. All products are certified to Class A levels for EMC and have CE certifications, and all switch products additionally have TUV safety certifications.

Myricom started operation in 1994. Myricom's technical team of engineers, programmers, and chip designers is constantly advancing Myrinet technology in performance and features. Myricom's production department is a major asset in producing these leading-edge products with very high quality and an excellent record of on-time delivery. The sales team manages Myricom's relationships with OEM customers and resellers in addition to servicing direct sales.

Myricom, Inc., is a privately held California Corporation, and at the end of September 2005 completed its 42nd consecutive profitable quarter.