Dual- and Single-Port 10 Gigabit SFP+ Ethernet Converged Network Adapters Provide Ultimate

Flexibility and Scalability in Virtual and Unified Storage Environments

Overview

Intel’s family of adapters, the Intel®

Ethernet Converged Network Adapter

X520 with SFP+ connectivity, are the

most flexible and scalable Ethernet

adapters 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.

Powered by Intel’s third-generation 10

GbE network controller, the Intel® Ethernet

82599 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller,

the X520 adapter family addresses the

demanding needs of the next-generation

data center by providing unmatched

features for virtualization, flexibility for

LAN and SAN networking, and proven,

reliable performance.

Best Choice for Virtualization

The explosive growth in virtualization

is leading to an increasing demand for

network performance. With more Virtual

Machines (VMs) running on each multi-core

server, networking traffic is dramatically

increased, with each VM competing for

available I/O bandwidth. Intel’s family

of Intel Ethernet Converged Network

Adapter X520 addresses networking

bottlenecks in virtualized environments.

These adapters enable network-intensive

applications to achieve the performance

expected in a virtualized environment.

The Intel Ethernet X520 family of

adapters provides the best networking

performance available in the industry,

whether the physical port is configured

in an emulation mode using the virtual

switch in the Virtual Machine Monitor

(VMM), or is directly assigned to a

virtual machine. In the emulation mode,

Intel’s I/O technology, Virtual Machine

network performance by offloading data

sorting and copying from the software

Virtual Switch in the VMM to the Intel

Ethernet 82599 10 Gigabit Controller.

This configuration is best suited for a

large number of VMs running standard

applications that have limited bandwidth

and latency requirements.

For mission-critical applications, where

dedicated I/O is required for maximum

network performance, users can assign

a dedicated virtual adapter port to a VM.

Using the PCI-SIG SR-IOV capability on

an Intel Ethernet X520 adapter provides

direct VM connectivity and data protection

across VMs. SR-IOV technology enables the

data to bypass the software virtual switch

and provides near-native performance. It

assigns either physical or virtual I/O ports

to individual VMs directly. This technology

is best suited for applications that demand

the highest I/O throughput and lowest

latency performance such as database,

storage, financial and other applications.

PRODUCT BRIEF

Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520

with Support for SFP+ Connections

Network Connectivity