Network Too Slow?

I’m embedded at the Mothership here in Silly Valley all week, and among other things, heard about a product I never dreamed existed. Check it out: the IB Switch 9p; it’s a nine-port Infiniband switch, non-blocking even, each port up to 30Gbs and no, that’s not a misprint. Why nine, I wonder? My poor little mind boggles at the thought of what you could do with a rack full of either Opterons or T2000s, maxed out on memory and wired up with one of these things. Today, store.sun.com says one of these puppies will set you back $8,500; I imagine that in a decade, there’ll be one in your wristwatch to handle your personal telemetry.