Infiniband Based Cable Comparison

As Infiniband continues to be more broadly adopted in High Performance Computing (HPC) and datacenter applications, one major challenge still plagues implementation: cabling. With the transition to DDR (double data rate) from SDR (single datarate), currently available Infiniband implementations such as standard CX4/IB4x style copper cables severely constrain system design (10m maximum length for DDR copper cables, thermal management due to poor airflow, etc.). This paper will examine some of the options available and compare performance with the newly released Intel Connects Cables. In addition, we will take a glance at Intel's dual-core and quad-core systems to see if core counts have noticeable effect on expected IO patterns.