Intel’s new family of 10GbE server adapters for PCI Express* (PCIe*) is optimized for multicore Intel® Xeon® processor-based servers and virtualized environments. These adapters address the networking bottlenecks associated with server consolidation and are ideal for virtualization and demanding enterprise applications such as storage and high-performance computing.
- This family of adapters is based on the Intel® 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller, which provides energy-efficient, dual-port, PCIe-based 10GbE connectivity and is ideally suited for multi-port adapters and LAN on Motherboard (LOM) and blade designs.
- Intel launched its first 10GbE product in 2003 and is the leader in Gigabit Ethernet adapters with 56 percent market segment share. The new Intel server adapters feature broad OS support, iSCSI remote boot and a stable architecture ready for volume deployment.
- Fiber adapters
- Intel® 10 Gigabit XF SR Server Adapter is a fiber adapter capable of network transmissions of 300 meters over multi-mode fiber.
- Intel® 10 Gigabit XF SR Dual Port Server Adapter is a dual-port version of the XF SR Server Adapter. Two ports provide failover capability for mission-critical servers.
- An LR fiber adapter, capable of 10km network transmission over single-mode fiber, will be available in the first quarter of 2008.
- Copper adapters
- The 10GBase-T standard provides 100 meter network transmission over CAT 6a cable. Intel is working closely with leading 10GBase-T PHY vendors and plans to sample a 10GBase-T adapter in October.
- Intel is working on a dual-port Cx4 adapter based on the Intel 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller and capable of 15m network transmissions over Cx4 copper cable. This product will sample in the fourth quarter of this year.
- The SR (multi-mode fiber) server adapters are shipping now.
- Pricing for the Intel 10 Gigabit XF SR Server Adapter is $2,299.
- Pricing for the Intel 10 Gigabit XF SR Dual Port Server Adapter is $3,399.
- Intel’s LAN products support a broad range of Operating Systems, including: Windows* (Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Virtual Server 2005); Linux* (RedHat*, SUSE*) and Fedora*, FreeBSD*, EFI (Intel® Itanium® processor-based systems), and VMWare ESX* Server.
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Connectivity (Intel® VT-c)
- Intel’s new 10 Gigabit Ethernet products support Intel® Virtualization Technology for Connectivity (Intel® VT-c), a new suite of I/O virtualization technologies that improves overall system performance by improving CPU utilization, lowering latency and increasing throughput. Intel® I/O Acceleration Technology and Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq) are the components of the Intel VT-c suite that are available on these new adapters.
- Intel I/O Acceleration Technology (Intel® I/OAT) enables efficient data movement across the platform – network adapters, chipset and processors, thereby improving overall system performance by improving CPU utilization and lowering latency.
- Virtual Machines Device Queue (VMDq) technology is a smart acceleration capability within the Ethernet Controller that optimizes networking performance on virtual servers. It offloads data sorting and copying from the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) software layer to the hardware. With VMDq enabled on a virtualized server using an Intel 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller, Intel has seen throughput of 9.2 Gbps vs. 4.0 Gbps for the same systems without VMDq.
Storage over Ethernet
- The growth in storage capacity coupled with server virtualization has brought the need for Storage Area Network (SAN) in the forefront. To satisfy this growing demand, the Intel® 82598 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller includes support for iSCSI acceleration and advanced features for unified storage connectivity, such as Priority Groups and Per Priority Pause, that are critical for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Intel is actively leading the discussions at the T11 (FC-BB-5) working group to define the FCoE standard as well as working with FCIA to promote the benefits of FCoE.
About Intel
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