Coming Soon To Servers: 10GbE
However, Neterion's Xframe lineupwhich has been shipping 10GbE network cards to OEMs since October 2003now includes the Xframe, a 10GbE PCI-X 1.0 server and storage adapter, and the Xframe II, a PCI-X 2.0 version of the card, which delivers a bidirectional throughput of up to 14 Gbps. The latest version, Xframe E, supports PCI-Express. Each version of the card costs $3,990 and supports all major operating systems including Windows 2003, Linux Kernel 2.6.4, Sun Solaris 10, most versions of Unix, Irix, MacOS, FreeBSD and so on.
High-performance networks rely on 1GbE or Fibre Channel links to provide sufficient bandwidthbut when a single 1GbE link is insufficient, multiple 1GbE links are typically trunked together. The downside of trunking multiple links, however, is that it increases complexity, puts burden on the host and fills up more expansion slots.
Any application in which multiple 1GbE lines are currently trunked is a good candidate for the use of 10GbE technology, as it eliminates throughput bottlenecks while consolidating I/O ports and cabling on servers and switches.
Another advantage to 10GbE is that its links can be dynamically provisioned into virtual-trunked multi-gigabit links with variable bandwidth. That allows more efficient scaling over physically trunked 1GbE links with fixed bandwidth.
IBM, Hewlett-Packard and SGI are already offering 10GbE connectivity in their server offerings. System builders looking for ways to increase bandwidth and throughput should invest in Neterion's Xframe 10GbE NICs, do a little R&D, and offer cutting-edge server and storage solutions before the competition does.
