Grid Director 4036/2036 Installation Manual
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1
Introduction
1.1
4036/2036 Switch Overview
The Mellanox Grid Director 4036/2036 is a high performance, low latency and fully
non-blocking InfiniBand switch for high performance clusters. Delivering 2.88 Tbps of
non-blocking bandwidth with less than 100 nanoseconds of latency (port-to-port), I/O
bottlenecks are removed making applications operate at maximum efficiency.
The 4036/2036 was designed to fit into today’s densely configured racks. It has thirty-six
40Gbps ports that use the new smaller and intelligent QSFP connector in a 1U chassis that is
only 15" deep. The efficient 4036/2036’s smart design makes it is easy to build clusters that
can scale-out into the thousands of nodes.
To meet varying application needs, the 4036 offers Quad Data Rate 4X ports (QDR provides a
date rate of 40, 20 or 10 Gb/s auto-negotiable) while the 2036 offers Dual Data Rate 4X ports
(DDR provides a data rate of 20 or 10 Gb/sec auto-negotiable).
The 4036/2036 switch incorporates redundant, hot-swappable power supplies for High
Availability, as well as a hot-swappable fan unit. The 4036/2036 offers a plug-and-play
environment, allowing servers to be added without taking down the fabric.
The 4036/2036 includes a high-performance CPU for management purposes.
Grid Directors 2036 and 4036 are identical in appearance, distinguishable only by the product
ID label on the chassis.
The following figure shows the front view of a 4036 Unit. The front view of the 2036 is
identical.
Figure 1: 4036/2036 Front View
The following figure shows the rear view of a 4036 Unit. The rear view of the 2036 is
identical.
Figure 2: 4036/2036 Rear View
NOTE:
The 2036 and 4036 switches are identical in appearance. Therefore, the graphic
representations are generic and are applicable to either switch.
