Citihub and TIBCO exceed benchmarks using hardcore computer technology

Publication date: 2 November 2011

Tagged with: Citihub, TIBCO

Citihub Limited today announced that it has exceeded previously published benchmarks for inter process communications (IPC) by 34% using TIBCO FTL™ and Hardcore Computer’s liquid cooled Detonator™. The test measured IPC latency and averaged 237 nanoseconds at 4.2 million messages per second, which is significant for black box and highperformance e-trading.

The need for speed within high frequency and event driven trading is driving innovation within the financial services industry. As firms look to reduce end-to-end latency within their trading, market making and pricing engines, a common strategy is to collapse multiple applications onto a single server in order to reduce the network hops. It is for this reason, along with advances in multi-core processing technologies, that shared memory IPC communications is a focus for low latency developers.

Given the current interest in IPC communications, Citihub set the task to break previously published latency records. Citihub used shared memory inter-process communications (SHM IPC) which tests the speed at which messages can be passed from one application to another inside a machine. This is a key benchmark for many algorithmic trading platforms.

The Hardcore Computer’s Detonator™ is a high performance liquid cooled workstation with a fully immersed SuperMicro motherboard and Intel Xeon processor X5698. The sophisticated cooling design is 1,350 times more efficient than air-cooled workstations and allows the processors to be clocked to an impressive 4.93 GHz on a continuous basis.

TIBCO FTL™ is an extreme-low-latency messaging solution and leverages the latest advancements like multi-core processors, in-memory architectures and networking technologies like Infiniband and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. TIBCO FTL™ offers four transports to choose from – Shared Memory, RDMA (InfiniBand and 10 GigE), TCP, and Reliable Multicast.

The test results exceeded expectations, with an average latency of 237 nanoseconds with FAST size 16byte messages scaling to 271 nanoseconds with 128 byte messages. This represents a 34% improvement on previously published intra-host benchmarks by TIBCO and is 3.3 times quicker than existing standards.

Donovan Ransome, head of e-trading and market data, Citihub said, “This record once again demonstrates Citihub’s low latency engineering capability. We have been improving and tuning milliseconds and microseconds from electronic trading applications for over a decade by combining the knowledge and experience of our consultants and engineers with close industry relationships with key innovators such as SuperMicro, Intel, Hardcore Computers and TIBCO.”

“The race to zero latency is a constant challenge in today’s high-frequency trading architectures, however providing consistent, predictable latency in these extreme environments is even more important,” said Matthew Quinn, CTO, TIBCO. “TIBCO FTL is highly optimized to deliver predictable, extreme low-latency messaging for both intra-host and inter-host communications in heterogeneous network environments, for high throughput and variable message size requirements.”

“Liquid submersion allows for unparalleled system performance for applications like high frequency trading, engineering analysis, advanced scientific visualization, simulation and modeling,” said Chad Attlesey, Hardcore Computer’s president, chief technology officer and founder.

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