The Interconnect comprises hardware, software, and firmware that enable multiple enterprise partition platforms and their partitions to communicate with one another with high performance. The Interconnect enables you to build applications that span multiple partitions, platforms, and operating systems. The Interconnect enables application components to communicate among themselves regardless of the number of Intel platforms and operating systems there are.

The primary components of the Interconnect include the following:

The Interconnect does not just provide a high-speed connection between enterprise partition platforms. s-Par® firmware and Interconnect firmware provide the high-speed connection between partitions within a given enterprise partition platform as well.

The Interconnect protects your software investment by allowing client programs to use the hardware-independent TCP/IP application program interface (API). Even when the underlying hardware technology changes and the makeup of the system changes, applications can remain unchanged. The overall architecture persists, even though individual components, such as specific Intel processors, reach their end of life and are replaced by new components and new technologies.

Whether partitions are hosted on the same enterprise partition platform, on enterprise partition platforms within the same system rack, or on different racks within the same data center, the Interconnect optimizes application performance using a single API. The Interconnect alleviates the application developer’s burden of using different communication techniques for local versus remote communication.