“Today, a diverse array of applications and markets are driving the need for higher-speed, higher-density and lower cost connectivity solutions.
In response, the UNH-IOL has taken a leading step to provide Ethernet stakeholders with testing services for 50, 100, 200 and 400 Gigabit through the multi-million dollar investment in new state of the art testing equipment. Additionally, bandwidth demand continues to grow at data centers tasked to service high-bandwidth, rich media applications such as video streaming, online gaming and digital marketing. Cloud service providers are looking to the higher efficiency and density that 50Gb/s PAM4 technologies (scalable up to 400Gb/s) Ethernet offers as they build out massive cloud-scale data centers, while the surge in mobile connectivity has telecoms pursuing higher speed Ethernet services. UNH-IOL said the need for Ethernet speeds exceeding existing 100 Gigabit (based on 25G NRZ signaling) is being driven by exponentially increasing capacity demands across the board. The new services are for electrical and optical conformance testing of 50, 100, 200 and 400 Gigabit Ethernet specifications, with plans to offer interoperability testing as new higher speed Ethernet products enter into development and, eventually, the market. The next NVMe Plugfest will be held in spring 2018 at the UNH-IOL in Durham, N.H.The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is introducing a testing service covering the new IEEE 802.3bs and the new IEEE 802.3cd specification for 50, 100, 200 and 400 Gigabit Ethernet based on PAM4 signaling. Beyond technology growth, the Plugfests foster a collaborative environment for device analyzer, test equipment manufacturers and industry experts to discuss issues and exchange ideas.” “Our testing events have expanded as existing standards evolve, offering a diverse and multiplying set of transports to test NVMe technologies-from PCIe architecture to over SAN, from ROCE or Fibre Channel. “The growth and success of NVMe Plugfests demonstrate maturing NVM Express technology and a readiness for Fabrics,” Ryan Holmquist, Chair of the NVMe Interoperability and Compliance Committee (ICC), said. Participating NVM Express member companies included Broadcom, Brocade, Cavium, Cisco, Intel, Lite-On, Mellanox, Microsemi, Oakgate, SANBlaze, Seagate, SerialTek, SK Hynix, Starblaze, Teledyne-LeCroy, Via Technologies, Viavi, Toshiba and Western Digital. “By continuing to prioritize specification compliance and interoperability testing, companies can ensure faster time to market and seamless interactions with other devices NVMe-based solutions.”Īttendance at the NVMe Plugfest included 63 engineers from 19 different companies focused in enterprise, client, cloud storage and test equipment manufacturing. “Since 2013, the UNH-IOL has certified over 112 NVMe-based products at the NVM Express Plugfests,” David Woolf, senior engineer, Datacenter Technologies at the UNH-IOL, said. Eight inaugural products were also approved for the newly launched NVMe-oF Integrators List, which accepts RoCE initiators and targets, Ethernet switches, as well as Fibre Channel initiator, targets and switches, and software. The testing performed by the UNH-IOL, an independent testing provider of standards conformance solutions and multi-vendor interoperability, generated 14 new certified products for the base NVMe Integrators List and one for the NVMe-MI Integrators List. The event offered the first official NVMe Over Fabrics (NVMe-oF™) compliance and interoperability transport layer testing for RoCE, Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over Converged Ethernet, and the Fibre Channel. during the week of October 30-November 2. 13, 2017- NVM Express, Inc., the organization that developed the NVM Express (NVMe™) and NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI™) specifications for accessing solid-state drives (SSDs) on a PCI Express (PCIe®) bus as well as over Fabrics, hosted its eighth NVMe Plugfest at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) in Durham, N.H. Over 20 total products certified, demonstrating industry commitment to advancing NVMe technology.īEAVERTON, Ore.,-USA-Dec.