SGI Unveils Altix ICE Blade Platform

SGI has unveiled SGI Altix ICE, a next-generation platform, purpose-built to handle high-performance computing (HPC) applications and scale-out workloads.

SGI Altix ICE enables large scale-out environments while minimising their demands on the data centre’s space and power. It arrives pre-integrated for easy “power up and go” deployment, allowing customers to focus on their work.

According to Ravi Pendekanti, senior director, Worldwide Solutions Marketing, SGI, “SGI Altix ICE is a new generation of system architecture – part cluster, part MPP – that will deliver more of the potential performance of the system to the end user, and will considerably increase the reliability, availability and serviceability of HPC installations in a smaller, more energy-efficient footprint.”

The new platform features support for dual high-speed, low-latency Double Data Rate (DDR) InfiniBand backplanes, a Gigabit Ethernet network for administrative tasks, and a hierarchical network topology that requires no external switching.

The new platform also boasts SGI’s new, third-generation water-cooled door design for customers deploying large and dense configurations.