Microsoft, one of the early InfiniBand backers, has reversed a plan to build support for the high-speed networking technology into its next server version of Windows.
Microsoft believes that most customers will prefer to extend existing Ethernet networking and therefore has dropped InfiniBand software that had been planned for its next server operating system, Windows .Net Server, due at the end of the year.
"Microsoft has decided to discontinue developing native InfiniBand support," the software maker said in a statement, adding that it will continue to help other companies offer InfiniBand products that plug into Windows.
The move, first reported by trade publication ByteandSwitch, is the latest blow to the widespread adoption of InfiniBand, just a few weeks after Intel withdrew its support and a week after a top Hewlett-Packard server executive declared that most customers "are not going to invest in a whole new infrastructure around InfiniBand."
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