Cumulus Linux will be the first network operating system to fully support Minipack, Facebook’s modular switch platform.
Minipack is half the height of its Facebook-designed big brother, Backpack, and uses half the power. It was developed by hardware maker Edgecore Networks.
Cumulus’ support for Minipack was announced at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit in San Jose this week.. The company also said that its Linux based OS will be available pre-installed on Minipack directly from the vendor or through Edgecore.
Minipack with Cumulus Linux pre-installed is not currently available but can be pre-ordered.
“We are excited to work with the community to develop an ecosystem around Minipack, the next generation of open, modular switch platforms that is more flexible, scalable and efficient for modern data centers," said Hans-Juergen Schmidtke, Director of Engineering at Facebook.
The Facebook designed Minipack is built with hyperscale facilities in mind. The switch's purpose is to increase data center capacity and bandwidth without increasing the footprint of data center hardware
Minipack will be built by Edgecore. The modular switch platform runs on Broadcom's StrataXGS Tomahawk III chipset and supports both 100 Gigabit Ethernet and 400 GbE interfaces. A Minipack chassis can support up to 128 ports of 100 GbE each or 32 of 400 GbE.
Facebook founded OCP in 2011 to share server and data center designs with other companies. The initiative hopes to drive down costs by sharing gear and software designs with other companies operating hyperscale data centers.
Cumulus Networks provides networking software to design, run, and operate modern data centers . The company has more than 1,500 customers globally and has received venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Telstra Ventures, Peter Wagner, four of the original VMware founders, among others.
