10
Mellanox Technologies
2 Introduction
Mellanox Spectrum
®
based 1U switch systems are an ideal spine and Top of Rack (ToR) solution, allowing maximum flexibility, with
port speeds spanning from 10Gb/s to 100Gb/s per port, and port density that enables full rack connectivity to any server at any speed.
The uplink ports allow a variety of blocking ratios that suit any application requirement. Powered by the Mellanox Spectrum ASIC,
the systems carry whopping switching and processing capacities in a compact 1U form factor.
Keeping with the Mellanox tradition of setting performance record switch systems, the Mellanox Spectrum-based systems introduce
the world’s lowest latency for 100GbE switching and routing elements, and do so while having the lowest power consumption in the
market. They enable the use of 10, 25, 40, 50 and 100GbE in a large scale without changing power infrastructure facilities.
The Mellanox Spectrum-based 1U switch systems are a part of Mellanox’s complete end-to-end solution, which provides 10GbE
through 100GbE interconnectivity within the data center. Other devices in this solution include ConnectX
®
-4 based network interface
cards, and LinkX
®
copper or fiber cabling/transceivers. This end-to-end solution is topped with NEO, a management application that
relieves some of the major obstacles standing in the way when deploying a network. NEO enables a fully certified and interoperable
design, speeds up time to service and RoI. The systems introduce hardware capabilities for multiple tunneling protocols that enable
increased reachability and scalability for today’s data centers. Implementing MPLS, NVGRE and VXLAN tunneling encapsulations in
the network layer of the data center allows more flexibility for terminating a tunnel by the network, in addition to termination on the
server endpoint.
While Mellanox Spectrum provides the thrust and acceleration that powers the switch systems, they get yet another angle of
capabilities, running with a powerful x86-based processor, which allows them to not only be the highest performing switch fabric
elements, but also grants them the ability to incorporate a Linux running server into the same device. This opens up multiple
application aspects of utilizing the high CPU processing power and the best switching fabric, to create a powerful machine with
unique appliance capabilities that can improve numerous network implementation paradigms. The Mellanox Spectrum-based 1U
switch systems support the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) for zero touch installations of network operating systems.
While all Ethernet systems can be purchased preloaded with Mellanox Onyx (MLNX-OS), the SN2000 switches (in both the 100GbE
and the 40GbE versions) are offered, in addition, with Cumulus Linux support, as an alternative operating system. For a full list of all
available ordering options, see
SN2700 Front View
SN2740 Front View
SN2410 Front View
SN2100 Front View
