Intel this week is releasing network interface card products aimed at helping servers and client PCs handle torrents of Ethernet traffic on corporate LANs.
SANTA CLARA – Intel this week is releasing network interface card products aimed at helping servers and client PCs handle torrents of Ethernet traffic on corporate LANs.
New Gigabit and 10G Ethernet adapters could help corporate customers take advantage of high-speed LAN connections and newer, powerful server processor technology applications to run faster between clients and servers.
Intel is releasing its 10G Ethernet PCI-X server adapter, which can be used to connect a PCI-X-based server with links as fast as 10G bit/sec. It also is announcing a four-port Gigabit Ethernet NIC for servers, and new Gigabit Ethernet chips aimed at making blade servers run faster. It also will have products aimed at letting PCI-based desktops fully utilize Gigabit Ethernet.
Intel’s Pro/1000 MT Quad Port server adapter packs four copper-based 1000Base-T ports into one PCI-X network card. The NIC is aimed at connecting a server to segments of a network that are physically separated. It can provide a server with simultaneous links to a LAN and network-attached storage systems. The card can be configured as a virtual 4G bit/sec connecting when connected to four 1000Base-T ports on a single switch that supports the IEEE 802.3ad link aggregation standard.
Intel’s Pro/1000 CT Desktop Connection chip will work with the company’s Springdale and Canterwood motherboard chipsets for desktops, which are due to be released this quarter. The Pro/1000 CT Ethernet controller will tap into the memory controller architecture of its two new chipsets, letting a PC utilize full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet connections. This architecture bypasses the 32-PCI bus of a desktop machine, which in the past had limited Gigabit Ethernet desktop connections to about 500M bit/sec, Intel says.
Intel held just less than half of the Gigabit NIC market when the products emerged in 2000, but the company commanded 62% of the market for 1000Base-T NICs in the second quarter of 2002. Its closest rival was 3Com, with 17% of the 373,000 products shipped.
Intel also has become the top supplier of integrated NIC products, surprising the silicon vendor Broadcom as the top supplier of components that integrate NIC functionality into PC and server motherboards, or LAN-on-motherboard products.
Intel’s Pro/10GbE LR Server Adapter will be available in March for $8,000, and the Intel Pro/1000 MT Quad Port Server Adapter is available for $575. The Pro/1000 CT Desktop Connection chip is available to PC manufacturers.
