HyperTransport and InfiniBand: The Complete High Bandwidth I/O Solution

There are two main pieces to the overall I/O problem: internal (or in the server box I/O), and external I/O (the I/O between servers). A number of new technologies address either or both parts of the problem, although it is difficult to make sense of where they fit within the server network, and how they relate to each other. A number of proposed solutions are competing with each other to become the industry standard, but two appear to have emerged on top. These are HyperTransport technology, which addresses the internal I/O problem, and InfiniBand Architecture, which takes on the external I/O problem. This tech paper examines HyperTransport technology and the InfiniBand Architecture individually, then explains how they fit together and interact with each other.