Overview
Intel's family of adapter, the Intel' Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520 with SFP+ connectivity, is the flexible and scalable Ethernet adapter for today's demanding data center environments. Data center networks are being pushed to their limits. The escalating deployments of servers with multi-core processors and demanding applications such as High Performance Computing (HPC), database clusters, and video-on-demand are driving the need for 10 Gbps connections. Customers require flexible and scalable I/O solutions to meet the rigorous requirements of running mission-critical applications in virtualized and unified storage environments.
  • SFP+ connectivity
  • Low-profile
  • Load balancing on multiple CPUs
  • ISCSI remote boot support
  • Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support
  • Intel Direct Cache Access (DCA)
  • MSI-X support
  • Low latency interrupts
  • Header splits and replication in receive
  • IPsec offload
  • Virtual Machine Load Balancing (VLMB)
  • Watchdog timer
Low-profile Enables higher bandwidth and throughput from standard and low-profile PCIe slots and servers. Load balancing on multiple CPUs Increases performance on multi-processor systems by efficiently balance CPU cores when used with Receive-Side Scaling (RSS) from Microsoft or scalable I/O on Linux. ISCSI remote boot support Provides centralized storage area network (SAN) management at a lower cost than other iSCSI solutions. Intel Direct Cache Access (DCA) Enables the adapter to pre-fetch the data from memory, avoiding cache misses and improving application response time. MSI-X support Minimizes the overhead of interrupts. Load-balancing of interrupt handling between multiple cores/CPUs. Low latency interrupts Based on the sensitivity of the incoming data, the adapter can bypass the automatic moderation of time intervals between the interrupts. Header splits and replication in receive Helps the driver focus on the relevant part of the packet without the need to parse it. IPsec offload Offloads IPsec capability onto the adapter instead of the software to significantly improve I/O throughput and CPU usage. Virtual Machine Load Balancing (VLMB) Virtual Machines Load Balancing (VMLB) provides traffic load balancing across virtual switch, port, cable, or adapter failure. Watchdog timer Gives an indication to the manageability firmware or external devices that the chip or the driver is not functioning.