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Moving to provide Dell's data center customers with increased networking I/O features as well as improved comprehensive clustering, Mellanox Technologies has unveiled single adapter cards with 40 Gb/s InfiniBand and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity for use with Dell's 10 GbE Pass Through module.

Announced Tuesday, the Mellanox product and its Mellanox InfiniScale IV InfiniBand-based M3601Q blade switch are designed to improve enterprise IT flexibility in data centers.

"Partnering with Mellanox enables Dell to provide leading server and storage I/O performance with flexibility to support the myriad of communication protocols and network fabrics over a single device, without sacrificing functionality when consolidating I/O," said Dell's Brian Payne in a statement. "Dell's blade servers help reduce data center capital expenses while providing IT and cluster administrators with greater bandwidth performance, better CPU utilization, and more efficient use of their data center space." Payne is director of server product management at Dell.

Dell, which has often followed an "open, modular, and pragmatic" approach to data centers, has been moving to also provide a converged data center approach. The new Mellanox products support the open approach even as Dell gears up to "converge" its data center offerings.

Mellanox said its ConnectX-2 mezzanine cards can be used in conjunction with Dell's 10Gb Ethernet Pass Through II module or with the Mellanox InfiniScale IV InfiniBand-based M3601Q blade switch. Users utilizing a single mezzanine card can attach to InfiniBand and/or 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks.

"The demands on data center I/O connectivity continue to increase with the deployment of many-core CPUs, virtualization, networked storage, clustered databases, and low-latency applications," said Mellanox VP of marketing John Monson, who noted that cloud computing, Web 2.0, and the commercial high-performance computing sector could benefit from the new Mellanox products.

For Further Reading

Dell Offers Open Data Center Convergence

Dell Dives Deeper Into Data Center

Mellanox Adapters Aid Multicore Processor Installations

Developing a server growth strategy that works for both the business and the IT budget is an increasingly complex proposition. Should you splurge for virtualization-class servers and consolidate your data center? Or maintain the status quo and grow your server farm incrementally with entry-level devices? Download our report here (registration required).