Omni-Path


Omni-Path was a high-performance communication architecture owned by Intel. It aims for low communication latency, low power consumption and a high throughput. Intel plans to develop technology based on this architecture for exascale computing. In 2017 Intel is offering at least 7 variations of multi-port Ethernet switches using this term in the form "Intel® Omni-Path Edge Switch 100 Series" all "supporting 100 Gb/s for all ports". First models of that series were already available starting Q4/2015.

History

Production of Omni-Path products started in 2015 and mass delivery of these products started in the first quarter of 2016. In November 2015, adapters were announced using QSFP28 connectors with channel speeds up to 100 Gbit/s. Simultaneously, switches based on the 48-port "Prairie River" ASIC were announced.
In April 2016, implementation of the InfiniBand "verbs" interface for the Omni-Path fabric was discussed.
In October 2016, IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Seagate Technology, Micron, Western Digital and SK Hynix announced a joint consortium called Gen-Z to develop an open specification and architecture for non-volatile storage and memory products—including Intel's 3D Xpoint technology—which might in part compete against Omni-Path.
In July 2019 it was announced that Intel will not continue development of Omni-Path networks and canceled OPA 200 series. OPA 100 series products are maintained and supported.

OEM availability

Intel also offers their Omni-Path systems via other vendors so customers can get all support for their environment from a single vendor. For example, Dell EMC offers the Intel Omni-Path solution as Dell Networking H-series, following the familiar naming-standard of Dell Networking.