Cavium, Elenion Step Up Network Infrastructure

With the network a vital part of just about everything we do these days both at work and at home, it's no surprise that companies are avidly seeking ways to improve network infrastructure and get more out of the systems in question. Recently, a new development between Cavium and Elenion Technologies produced some interesting new solutions in end-to-end server-to-switch operations.

The combination of Cavium—known in the field for semiconductors that make for better packet processing—and Elenion, which offers some noteworthy advancements in silicon photonics, brings us a complete, end-to-end reference architecture geared toward cloud-based data centers and similarly high-end enterprise applications.

Cavium's contribution to this development is the Q Logic multiprotocol Ethernet adapter, which allows for a range of supported speeds and thus makes it worth considering for the higher-end needs of a data center or enterprise use. Cavium also kicked in its X Pliant Ethernet switch line, offering better control of available resources to improve overall network infrastructure and produce better outcomes. Tying these two together is the Elenion photonics platform, which offers on-board transceivers tied directly into silicon photonics for an end result that not only provides capability, but also value.

The result has produced some impressive new switches, using direct fiber-to-the-server systems along with parallel multichannel systems,

producing an end result that uses much less power than previous versions, and even offers a clear path to an increasingly important target of data transfer that costs less than a dollar per gigabyte.

Such an ambitious target proves increasingly necessary given the sheer growth of network demand even from one year to the next, let alone what the scales start looking like when five or even 10 year growth is measured. The network is only more in demand with every passing day, as new technologies emerge that require data connections to fully operate.

Moreover, there aren't just more technologies demanding a connection, but the technologies that demand connections improve, which in turn requires more bandwidth—and an improved network infrastructure—to provide fully.  With technologies like conferencing and mobile workforce elements requiring a faster and more robust connection to move more data from place to place—and in the process offer a better visual or more information supplied—the need for more bandwidth only increases.

Our lives are increasingly ruled by bandwidth; not enough, and we simply can't function to the maximum. The more bandwidth we can get, the better overall, and Cavium and Elenion will go a long way toward making sure that bandwidth is always on hand.  

Edited by Alicia Young