Appro, a leading provider of high-performance enterprise computing systems announced its plans to offer Level 5 Networks Gigabit Ethernet technology. Level 5 Networks EtherFabric is a High-performance Network Interface Card that accelerates all traffic on an Ethernet Network. EtherFabric offers a breakthrough architecture that increases the performance of applications by allowing each to communicate directly with the EtherFabric Network Interface Card (NIC). The ability to boost performance of TCP, UDP, and IP Multicast without changing the Application or the existing Ethernet infrastructure puts Level 5 Networks ahead of competing technologies.

A cluster based on Level 5 Networks NICs and Appro 1U 2-way AMD Opteron servers has catapulted itself into the top performers on TopCrunch.org proving that standards based Gigabit Ethernet is a viable High Performance Interconnect. Topcrunch.org is a forum used to post the performance of Finite Element Analysis applications running on various types of servers and interconnects. For more information on the cluster configuration, please go to http://www.topcrunch.org/benchmark_details.sfe?query=2&id=472

"By offering Level 5 Network Technology, we will address many of our customer's requests for a solution that delivers high-performance interconnect with huge application performance gains without a price premium, as well as offering compatibility with their existing systems," said Daniel Kim, CEO of Appro.

"We are very excited with the opportunity to partner with such a leader in the high performance computing arena. The value proposition of EtherFabric is resonating extremely well in the market place and many system providers continue to add EtherFabric to their solution sets," said Ash Munshi, President of Level 5 Networks, Inc. "Appro has a very strong presence in HPC, and we look forward to many successes in 2006 and beyond."

http://www.appro.com