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Figure 1-2 displays the back of the Topspin 360 Server Switch and numbers the slots on the chassis.
Figure 1-2: Topspin 360 Chassis - Back View (Service End) with Slot Numbers
The vertical slots at the top of the service end of the Topspin 360 are numbered 1 to 14 from left to right.
The horizontal slots at the bottom of the service end of the chassis are numbered 15 to 16 from top to
bottom. Field replaceable units (FRUs) with interfaces populate the service side of the chassis. FRUs
such as power supplies and blower modules populate the front of the chassis, behind the bezel.
Features
The Topspin 360 provides unprecedented levels of availability, scalability, and manageability for
deploying server clusters and on-demand computing. Switch modules provide up to a terabit of internal
bandwidth, and Ethernet or Fibre Channel field-replaceable interface cards enable up to 72 ports of
Fibre Channel, Ethernet, and InfiniBand interfaces in a single chassis.

Performance

Expressly designed to apply networking principles to computing problems, the Topspin 360 uses a
switched InfiniBand fabric to interconnect server resources at 10 Gbps speeds. The combination of high
bandwidth and low latency allows resources to be disaggregated and dynamically reassembled without
the limits of the shared PCI bus.

Unified Fabric

The Topspin 360 integrates storage, server, and networking I/O into one unified fabric. With only one
interface card in each host, you can manage all resources on one fabric and eliminate the need to install
and manage multiple Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and inter-process communications (IPC) cards. The
Topspin 360 aggregates and load balances all types of I/O, significantly reducing the number of
managed ports in your environment and increasing availability.

Transparent Topology

Based on the Topspin Transparent Topology architecture, the Topspin 360 creates virtual IP and Fibre
Channel interfaces on every server, allowing existing IP and storage area network (SAN) resources to
seamlessly extend to server clusters. Using Fibre Channel gateways, SAN management technologies
can “see” each individual node, enabling critical storage management and security models, such as
Fibre Channel fabric zoning and storage-based LUN zoning. By adding Ethernet gateways, IT managers
can also enable full IP connectivity, extending the value of server clusters to the rest of the enterprise.
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