Intel To Drive Gigabit Ethernet, Optical Networking Into The Enterprise

Intel

Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Communications Group, unveiled single-chip Gigabit Ethernet controllers for desktop PCs, workstations and servers that are up to 45 percent smaller and use less power than previous products. At the same time, he debunked the notion that system bus technologies still need improvements to take advantage of faster throughput in such products.

"There is plenty of headroom on [Intel Architecture machines," Maloney said. Intel unveiled on Monday Xeon server CPUs starting at 1.8GHz and supported by a platform that increases the system bus to 400MHz and I/O bandwidth to up to 3.2 Gbytes of data per second.

Intel also is working to ready the 3GIO standard to provide higher-speed interconnects in the future, he added.

The new Gigabit Ethernet controllers are available now to motherboard manufacturers and should be shipping in Intel-branded PCI-X cards by the end of the year, an Intel spokesman said.

Over the next two to three years, Intel also plans to release 10-Gbit optical networking cards aimed at the enterprise, Maloney said. Increased traffic within the enterprise will require companies to migrate from copper connections to optical, he said.

Average enterprise traffic is 120 Tbytes per day now and that number will continue to "grow phenomenally," he said. Intel projects enterprise traffic will increase by at least 10 times during the next several years.

Intel's challenge in the optical market is to reduce package size and cost to make optical products palatable for servers and desktops, Maloney noted. Prices for add-in cards will need to average $10 to spark IT buyer interest, he said.

During his keynote presentation, Maloney also called on the industry to support open standards for 802.11 wireless.

Maloney warned that recent hype over 802.11 is reaching "irrational exuberance" and said improvements in compatibility, security and billing still need to be worked out. Those issues, he said, must be rectified through standards bodies.

"In order to deliver on the promise of 802.11, let's not have standards wars," he said.

Intel believes the future of the wireless technology will be in dual-band cards that can roam seamlessly between 802.11b and the faster 802.11a standards, he said. Intel Labs also is developing products that add a standard Ethernet connection and allow enterprise workers to either connect to the wired network in the office or unplug and instantly connect to a wireless network if they have to move locations or attend a meeting.