The need for speed [Internet system architecture

Abstract

The exponential growth of the Internet has brought about a need for a proportional increase in the speed on interconnect. To deal with the need for greater speed, it is no longer feasible to make interconnect wider and faster because of the high pin count per device, tighter margins for skew on the bus, and reliable high-speed interconnect as a logical step. In this paper, the author argues that the growth of the Internet is changing the landscape of the system architecture. The Infinitband, Rapid Fabric, and advanced switching interconnect standards discussed are different in terms of choice of features and the trade-off between simplicity and flexibility. Interconnects that can best use the industry's economies of scale are likely to find greater acceptability and usage.