With Added Partners, 100G Circuits and Advanced Fabric Management, InfiniCortex Runs Rings Around the World

A New Class of Supercomputer Network Achieves Circumnavigation Connecting Asia with Multiple Sites Across North America and Europe in a Global InfiniBand Fabric

Austin, TX – November 12, 2015 – Building on its inaugural 2014 configuration, Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) continues to leverage Obsidian Strategics and optical network partners to consolidate InfiniCortex as a unique research tool.

InfiniCortex is the manifestation of A*STAR's concept of globally interconnecting supercomputing resources using their native InfiniBand networks to provide streamlined and transparent equipment aggregation. A growing number of partner countries have joined Singapore in this initiative, currently including Australia, Japan, USA, Poland, Czech Republic, France and most recently, Canada.

Dr. Marek Michalewicz, A*STAR CRC's CEO, said “We are delighted to be able to welcome new partners into the InfiniCortex group and are especially proud to be able to build on the 100G trans-Pacific InfiniBand link segment with a new link supplied by TEIN-CC / GEANT from London east to Singapore, completing circumnavigation of the planet. We have also created an InfiniCloud overlay using native InfiniBand OpenStack to render virtualized HPC resources from hardware physically distributed across four continents.”

“More than just a collection of high-capacity optical paths,” said Dr. David Southwell, CVO of Obsidian Strategics, “InfiniCortex is an example of a global InfiniBand fabric, combining extremely efficient transport protocols with high grade cryptography and multiple interlinked native InfiniBand subnets supporting robust and scalable network topologies. Configuration and management is provided by the Bowman Global Fabric Controllers - BGFC.”

See a variety of innovative supercomputer applications leveraging the InfiniCortex and meet the teams at SC15 (Austin Convention Center, TX) - Obsidian (booth 287), A*STAR (booth 306), GEANT, Pioneer, TEIN-CC, NCI, ORNL, Georgia Tech, Internet2 and Compute Canada from November 16th to 19th.

About Obsidian Strategics
Obsidian Strategics™ is the developer of Longbow™, Crossbow™ and Bowman™ series of InfiniBand products featuring range extension, routing, encryption and fabric controller functions. Longbow and Crossbow technologies allow an InfiniBand fabric - normally a single-subnet short-range network used within supercomputers and data centres - to be securely extended via optical fiber over global distances and many subnets. Bowman Global Fabric Controllers (BGFC) overlay management and administration services across the resulting widely distributed and complex fabric topologies, enabling unprecedented scalability, security and control. www.obsidianstrategics.com.

About A*Star CRC
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is Singapore's leading public sector agency that fosters world-class scientific research and talent to drive economic growth and transform Singapore into a vibrant knowledge-based and innovation- driven economy. In line with its mission-oriented mandate, A*STAR spearheads research and development in fields that are essential to growing Singapore’s manufacturing sector and catalysing new growth industries. A*STAR supports these economic clusters by providing intellectual, human and industrial capital to its partners in industry. www.a-star.edu.sg.