InfiniCon Systems, the provider of I/O virtualization and clustering solutions for next-generation server networks, announced today that National Tsinghua University has selected InfiniCon to supply a 10Gbps switch fabric for a 128-node, InfiniBand-based cluster.

Tsinghua University will deploy the high-performance computing (HPC) cluster to support a myriad of research projects conducted in both basic and applied sciences. Shanghai Hong Ri International–an InfiniCon ASAP program channel partner in China–fostered the relationship between InfiniCon and Tsinghua University.

InfiniCon's InfinIO 3000 Switch Series will provide a 10Gbps, full bisectional bandwidth fabric for the 128-node cluster, comprised of Hewlett-Packard's Integrity rx2600 servers with Intel Itanium 2 dual processors. The HPC configuration is expected to yield peak computing performance of more than one trillion floating point calculations per second (TeraFlops). Eleven schools with a total of 44 departments within Tsinghua University will have access to the computational power of the InfiniBand cluster. In addition, the Tsinghua cluster will be among the initial university sites integrated into the China Education and Research Grid, sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The Education and Research Grid was launched in October 2003 and will ultimately link more than 200,000 students and faculty members from nearly 100 universities across China, enabling them to share resources and work collaboratively.