InfiniBand (IB) is a computer networking communications standard used in high-performance computing that features very high throughput and very low latency. It is used for data interconnect both among and within computers, such as servers, storage systems and peripheral devices.
InfiniBand is also designed to be scalable and uses a switched fabric network topology.
InfiniBand is an open standard that is defined and promoted by the InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA), which includes hardware and software vendors.
InfiniBand was originally developed in 1999 from the merger of two competing designs: Future I/O and Next Generation I/O (NGIO).
InfiniBand uses a channel-based architecture that consists of host channel adapters (HCAs), switch systems, routers, gateway systems, long-haul systems, cables and transceivers.
InfiniBand supports various protocols and features, such as remote direct memory access (RDMA), quality of service (QoS), self-healing network capabilities, and In-Network Computing engines.
InfiniBand is widely used for building high-performance computing clusters, such as supercomputers, cloud data centers, and artificial intelligence platforms.
InfiniBand enables fast and efficient data transfer between compute nodes and storage nodes, as well as parallel processing of large-scale workloads.
InfiniBand competes with other interconnect technologies, such as Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and Intel Omni-Path.
