After an extensive review process, Release 1.3 of Volume 2 of the InfiniBand Architecture Specification has been approved by our Electro-Mechanical Working Group (EWG). The specification is undergoing final review by the full InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) membership and will be available for vendors at Plugfest 22, taking place October 15-26, 2012 at University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab in Durham, New Hampshire.
All IBTA working groups and individual members have had several weeks to review and comment on the specification. We are encouraged by the feedback we’ve received and are looking forward to the official release at SC12, taking place November 10-16 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Release 1.3 is a major overhaul of the InfiniBand Architecture Specification and features important new architectural elements:
- FDR and EDR signal specification methodologies
- Analog signal specifications for FDR, that have been verified through Plugfest compliance and interoperability measurements
- More efficient 64b/66 encoding method
- Forward Error Correction coding
- Improved specification of QSFP-4x and CXP-12x connectors, ports and management interfaces
The new specification also includes significant copy editing and organization to include sub volumes and improve overall readability. The previous specification, Release 1.2.1, was released in November 2007. As Chair of the EWG, I’m pleased with the technical progress made on the InfiniBand Architecture specification. More importantly, I’m excited about the impact that this new specification release will have for users and developers of InfiniBand technology.
Alan Benner
EWG Chair