The high-speed interconnect channels support industry-standard technologies such as PCI Express Gen 2, Infiniband, Fibre Channel and IEEE802.3ap*-2007 Backplane Ethernet (1000BASE-KX,
10GBASE-KX4 or 10GBASE-KR). A short-detect contact in the signal connectors allows hot-swap insertion and removal of Compute Blade and CMM modules.
Blade servers are the fastest growing server form factor today and unit sales are projected to grow over 20% per year through 2013, said James Lim, global product marketing manager. The SSI modular blade specifications will help facilitate the market transition to server blades.