News and Events

2003

UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM SELECTS FORCE10 NETWORKS FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE GRID COMPUTING

Line-Rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet Connects University's Supercomputer Cluster To SURFnet Backbone

MILPITAS, Calif., February 3, 2003 — Force10 Networks Inc., today announced the University of Amsterdam has selected Force10 E-Series switch/routers to provide a high performance network infrastructure for next-generation grid computing applications. The E-Series aggregates Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections from computer nodes of the university’s DAS-II (Distributed ASCI Supercomputer II) supercomputer cluster into a 10-Gigabit Ethernet upstream connection to SURFnet, which is the national research and education network in the Netherlands and connects 200 higher education and research organizations to each other as well as to other research networks in Europe and the rest of the world.

“We selected the Force10 Networks solution because it is the only next-generation switch/router with high-density Gigabit Ethernet and true, line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet,” said Cees de Laat, researcher at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam and member of the Global Grid Forum Steering Group. “The Force10 E-Series delivers the performance, density, and scalability we need for building the clusters and grids of today as well as into the future. Force10 is supplying us with the networking performance we need to deliver innovative grid applications that will change the way the world thinks about computing.”

The University of Amsterdam is a leading member of DataGrid, a project funded by the European Union working towards the creation of a next-generation computing infrastructure providing intensive computation and analysis of shared large-scale databases across widely distributed scientific communities. Using 10-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to SURFnet as part of the DataGrid Project, research teams in Amsterdam can work on solutions that will enable international scientific collaborations to share and access massive databases in fields such as particle physics, astronomy, biology, seismology.

“Grid Computing is the next wave of computing and requires high-performance Ethernet switch/routers with true, line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet,” said Steve Mullaney, vice president of marketing at Force10. “We are very excited to be working with the University of Amsterdam to meet the new demands placed on the network infrastructure of the computing backbone and enable the next wave of grid computing systems and applications.”

About Faculty of Science, Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
The Advanced Internet Research group of the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Science researches new architectures and protocols for the Internet. It actively participates in worldwide standardization organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Global Grid Forum. The group conducts experiments with extremely high-speed network infrastructures, and carries out ground-breaking research in the fields of security, authorization, authentication and accounting for Grid environments. The Institute is developing a virtual laboratory based on Grid technology for e-science applications. http://www.science.uva.nl/research/air/.

Contact:
Peter Ruzicka
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5151
pruzicka@force10networks.com

Contact:
Jennifer Arculeo
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5194
jarculeo@force10networks.com

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is the pioneer in building and securing high performance networks. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10’s TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world’s largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit www.force10networks.com.

Force10 Networks and E-Series are registered trademarks, and P-Series, S-Series, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.