high performance parallel interface (HIPPI)

High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI) originated in the supercomputer environment and represents a fast point-to-point connection with data rates of 800 Mbit/s in duplex mode and 1,600 Mbit/s in simplex mode.

With the HIPPI interface, distances of 25 m can be bridged on a 50- or 100-pole cable. Using fiber optic extenders, the distance can be increased to up to 2 km. HIPPI supports TCP/ IP data packets of up to 64 Kbytes in length and has a latency of 0.5 to 2 µs.

The first proposal for HIPPI dates back to 1987. In 1991, HIPPI was standardized as gigabit technology under the designation HIPPI 800 by the ANSI working group X3T9.3. HIPPI was further developed for more data-intensive applications in the multi-gigabit range and was designated SuperHIPPI or HIPPI 6400. However, these designations did not become established, instead the designation GSN for GigabyteSystem Network was used.

HIPPI has since been superseded by other technologies such as SCSI and Fibre Channel.