Hitachi Invests In InfiniBand Developer Voltaire

Voltaire Hitachi Ltd.

Voltaire executives declined to disclose the size of Hitachi's investment, but said Hitachi intended to work with Voltaire on development of new InfiniBand products.

Hitachi's interest in the company comes from Voltaire's development of a complete InfiniBand router, including hardware, software and drivers, said Arun Jain, vice president of marketing at Voltaire, based here and in Israel.

Jain said other developers have focused on only one part of the solution. He also said Voltaire is already shipping a 1x InfiniBand router, which helps connect InfiniBand server and storage components to standard TCP/IP networks.

Jain said sales are very slow because the market is waiting for 4x equipment. Voltaire plans to have a 4x router in evaluation next quarter and begin shipments early next year, he said.

Jain admitted that backpedaling by Intel and Microsoft, lack of silicon for InfiniBand and the soft economy have held back the adoption of InfiniBand. "But our partners are saying they plan to put InfiniBand in their products quickly," he said.

Voltaire currently has a limited sales force and is awaiting the availability of its 4x router before developing an indirect sales channel, Jain said. He expects most of the company's sales to go through the channel when that happens.