Fujitsu Ltd says it will develop and market ccNUMA mainframes, Windows NT and possibly Unix servers that use a high-performance, low-latency interconnect called SynFinity developed by its Fujitsu System Technologies unit. The group, an 80-person offshoot from Hal Computer Systems Ltd, one of Fujitsu’s Sparc RISC concerns, says SynFinity can be used to create a ccNUMA distributed shared memory, message-passing clustering or SMP systems. SynFinity is a proprietary technology that has the same basic functionality as the IEEE 1596-1992 Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) standard, except it’s non-standard. Because, Fujitsu says, SCI is too expensive; too slow. SynFinity has a claimed latency of 1.4 microseconds and a bandwidth throughput of 1.6Gbps compared with Sequent’s 3.0 microseconds and Dolphin’s 2.7. Like other ccNUMA vendors, Fujitsu must currently customize two-way Intel Corp Pentium Pro boards to configure a SynFinity system, but with the introduction of Slot 2 Deschutes Pentium II boards in the summer year it will be able to plug its work into an expansion slot on the processor’s motherboard. By that time it should be able to cluster six four-way boards in ccNUMA arrangements using a proprietary six-port router or connect up to ten boards together in an SMP arrangement. 12-way and 16-way clustering will follow. SynFinity’s also available as a PCI Cluster Card for creating two-to-64 node clusters. Fujitsu says it has eight-way Pentium Pro SynFinity systems running in house with Windows NT, is developing support for the emerging Virtual Interface Architecture clustering schema and is also working with Microsoft to tweak NT for its technology. The interconnect chipset, boards and cabling is also being OEMed – the company says SynFinity is faster and cheaper than rivals. Fujitsu claims to have shipped it to several partners which it will make public in the near future. Fujitsu says it’s looking at how it might extend SynFinity by implementing single system image and other traditionally software-based cluster control mechanisms in hardware.
Pulled out
Fujitsu has a SynFinity-enabled version of Santa Cruz Operation Inc UnixWare knocking around but doesn’t know whether this will ever make it to market. SynFinity was originally developed for use as a Unix system building block when Fujitsu and its ICL Plc unit, SCO and Data General Corp worked on a project to co-develop ccNUMA extensions for SCO UnixWare. DG’s Dolphin Interconnect Solutions Inc’s four-way Audobon ccNUMA system boards were to have been the hardware reference platform for that development but after DG pulled out last September the deal fell apart and Fujitsu/ICL continued with the work on its own. It says it’s currently in discussions with SCO about a commercial implementation of its work. All three vendors will be making nice nice today as ICL, DG, Compaq and Unisys announce investments in SCO to keep the UnixWare torch burning. Fujitsu’s ICL Plc high-performance systems division which has been scouring the industry for an interconnect technology to link four-way Intel Deschutes boards together in high-performance server configurations later this year is already playing with SynFinity. It currently uses Unisys Corp’s Synchronous Coherent Memory (SCM) bus which can connect up to 10 Pentium Pro CPUs and claims to have kicked the tires of most of the other interconnects out there.
