Date: 27/02/2011

10GBASE-T PCI Express network adapter for cloud and enterprise servers

Broadcom has unveiled what it calls the world's first dual-port 10GBASE-T adapter with full offload capabilities. The BCM957712-T is packaged in a low-profile PCI Express form factor supporting both networking and storage traffic over a single 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) connection.

This adapter uses RJ-45 connections for distances up to 100 meters to connect to enterprise server farms and cloud data centers at speed of 10GbE. As per January 2011 report from LightCounting on 10GBASE-T, total 10GBASE-T ports are expected to increase dramatically between 2011 and 2014, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 233 percent.

This adapter is made using Broadcom's semiconductor chips such as BCM57712 MAC and BCM84823 PHY components. Broadcom says the 10GBASET adapter is the first technology to bring full offload capabilities to 10GbE and the first to integrate TCP/IP and iSCSI offload on a 10GBASE-T medium. Broadcom is displaying this new offering at the Ethernet Technology Summit.

The key highlights of this adapter are:

This wired cable option is cheaper compared to expensive fiber cables and optical transceivers required by SFP+ solutions.
BCM957712-T is full spec compliance and interoperable at 10GbE, while providing a seamless interface to existing infrastructure.
Delivers bi-directional line rate throughput across both ports, and over 1Million iSCSI IOPS.
The adapter's 10GBASE-T PHY uses advanced digital signal processor (DSP) based architecture to allow robust operation over UTP wiring. UTP enables the use of structured cabling, a key advantage in delivering the lowest total cost solution within the Data Center.
The innovative offload architecture minimizes CPU overhead eliminating competition for host resources while freeing valuable CPU cycles for processing user applications.
The iSCSI operation is offloaded and accelerated for block storage resulting in high input/output instructions per second, as well as higher bandwidth.
The adapter uses a receive side scaling (RSS) to avoid bottlenecks by distributing network processing across multiple CPUs.


Kimball Brown, VP Datacom Analyst, LightCounting, LLC said "As more and more virtual machines are run on a given physical server, the aggregate bandwidth for that server grows - driving a clear market need for 10GbE solutions. To date, these solutions have been expensive to deploy due to costly optical cabling architectures, and because dual port 10GBASET technology has not been viable in a server. However, in 2011, dual-port 10GBASE-T adapters such as Broadcom's can now provide support to a much larger market segment due to the inherent flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the RJ-45 connections."

Availability: Now in samples and volumes in Q2 2011.