News

posted on 12 August 2008 12:31

NetXen has announced a single chip 1GbE and 10GbE NIC product which can be easily switched from GbE to 10GbE and has built-in Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCOE) capability.

NetXen's NX3031 is its third-generation intelligent Ethernet NIC (network interface card) and comes as a chip or as a PCI board. It is the first upgradeable GbE to 10GbE NIC, through what NetXen calls its FlexLOM (LAN on motherboard) design.

According to a Tolly Group Up to Spec Certified test, NetXen achieves 22 Gbit/s of bi-directional throughput and more than 14 Gbit/s receive throughput for 1,500-byte packets. These test results represent a near doubling of previous industry benchmarks and are achieved, NetXen says, through a new form of stateless offload enabled by the programmability of the intelligent NIC.

Kevin Tolly, president and CEO ofThe Tolly Group, said: "Both with 1,500-byte frames and with Jumbo Frames, the NX3031 delivered ultra-high throughput coupled with extremely low CPU utilization."

Bob Wheeler, a Senior Analyst for The Linley Group, said: “NetXen’s FlexLOM solution clearly differentiates them from other 10 Gigabit Ethernet NIC vendors and should accelerate the industry transition from Gigabit to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The cost effectiveness and upgradeability of the FlexLOM technology is extremely attractive for OEMs and end users alike. And, when combined with the highest performance numbers I’ve seen to date, the NX3031 delivers impressive price/performance.”

Upgrading to 10GbE

Once the NX3031 is installed servers can upgrade from GbE to 10 GbE for the cost of a 25-cent connector and a small riser card that incorporates the customer’s choice of physical layer interface: SPF+; CX4; or the emerging 10GBASE-T.

Govind Kizhepat, NetXen CEO and founder, said: “Our third-generation Intelligent NIC solutions harness the power of the FlexLOM architecture to provide server OEMs and board manufacturers with an effortless, affordable and high-volume transition from Gigabit to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. ... volume server providers can confidently incorporate NetXen’s NX3031 Intelligent NIC solution, starting out with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity on their servers, and then transitioning to 10 Gigabit Ethernet when, how and as they need it, without burdening the cost of the base platform.”

The NX3031 is the industry’s first single chip solution supporting full offload of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) that, NetXen expects, will drive storage and network convergence, and comes on three cards:-

- NX3-20GxR: Dual-port 10GbE low-profile PCI Express 2.0 cards with pluggable SFP+ optical interconnect modules,
- NX3-20GCU: Dual-port 10GbE low-profile PCI Express 2.0 card with direct attach twinax copper wiring for cost-effective in-rack connectivity,
- NX3-4GBT: Low-profile PCI Express 2.0 card with four Gigabit Ethernet ports for maximum flexibility in mixed 1G/10G environments.

NetXen says they are available now at port price parity with Gigabit Ethernet, and will, the company expects, help reduce street prices for 10 Gigabit Ethernet server I/O to less than $299 per port, a price point that may encourage broad migration to 10 Gigabit Ethernet for server connectivity.

Previous NetXen products have been OEM'd by IBM and HP.

^{[Martin Edwards, news writer.]}