Infiniband also is used in the financial services, manufacturing, energy and life sciences sectors, Voltaire said.

The IBTA has positioned FDR as a cost-effective InfiniBand for midsized data centers. In addition to FDR, the association also introduced EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), which will have approximately twice the throughput of FDR and is expected to become available next year. Voltaire did not say whether it plans to support EDR.

Both standards are the latest salvos in the ongoing competition between InfiniBand and Gigabit Ethernet as the choice for low-latency, high-throughput communications. Last June, the IEEE approved the 802.3ba standard for 40-Gigabit and 100-Gigabit Ethernet, and .

Voltaire, based in Ra'anana, Israel, and Chelmsford, Massachusetts, offers both InfiniBand and Ethernet gear. However, for high throughput, Voltaire is bullish on InfiniBand. Somekh noted that 40-Gigabit and 100-Gigabit Ethernet are being aimed at connections between switches, and the fastest server adapters still now use 10-Gigabit Ethernet. In contrast, FDR will bring 56 Gb/s all the way to the server.

"We're basically taking the maximal throughput that the PCI bus will allow you to have," Somekh said, adding that the 2011 release will go well with the latest Intel and Advanced Micro Devices server processors, which will require greater I/O throughput.