An architecture and specification for data flows between processors and high performance I/O devices such as servers in a storage area network (SAN), InfiniBand is a high-performance switched fabric interconnect standard.The baseline 1X InfiniBand specification supports a signaling rate of 2.5 Gbps using 8B10B coding, which yields a data rate of 2 Gbps. The more capable 4X specification quadruples the signaling rate to 10 Gbps and the data rate to 8 Gbps by spreading a datastream over four bonded links. The 12X specification supports a signaling rate of 30 Gbps and a data rate of 24 Gbps. Double-rate and quad-rate options effectively double and quadruple each of these theoretical speeds. See also
8B10B,
architecture,
bonding, and
SAN.