Home / server / Questions / 473527
In Process
user1219721
Asked: 2013-01-30 08:15:18 +0800 CST

are DDR infiniband and 10Gbase-CX4 cables the same?

  • 772

They looks the same. It's SFF-8470

Is it ok to buy a "10Gbase-CX4" cable for an infiniband network ?

SFF-8470

10gbethernet

3 Answers

  1. Yes.

    These are basic CX4 (Infiniband) cables.

    I use them for 10GbE and external SAS connectivity (host->tape drive or host->enclosure). (sometimes actual Infiniband, too!)

    For me, it was initially a cheaper way to get into 10-Gigabit storage networking before the standards solidified. CX4 10GbE is considered passé, though, because they are big, stiff and thick...

    enter image description here

    • 1

  2. This should work in a 4X infiniband network. See 802.3ak

    • 0

  3. Following two sections are direct quote from Wikipedia

    Effective unidirectional theoretical throughput (actual data rate, not signaling rate)

             SDR       DDR       QDR     FDR-10           FDR        EDR
 1X  2 Gbit/s  4 Gbit/s  8 Gbit/s  10 Gbit/s  13.64 Gbit/s  25 Gbit/s
 4X  8 Gbit/s 16 Gbit/s 32 Gbit/s  40 Gbit/s  54.54 Gbit/s 100 Gbit/s
12X 24 Gbit/s 48 Gbit/s 96 Gbit/s 120 Gbit/s 163.64 Gbit/s 300 Gbit/s

    Physical Interconnection

    InfiniBand uses copper CX4 cable for SDR and DDR rates — also commonly used to connect SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) HBAs to external (SAS) disk arrays. With SAS, this is known as an SFF-8470 connector, and is referred to as an "InfiniBand-style" Connector. The latest connectors used with QDR and FDR are QSFP (Quad SFP) and can be copper or fiber, depending on the length required.

    So depends on speed.

    • 0