NetXen intros enhanced adapters

MUMBAI: NetXen Inc, provider of 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) technology and products, today announced that its NetXen-based 10GbE Multifunction Network Adapters supporting Windows and Linux offload have been integrated with the HP ProLiant DL and ML server lines.

A new firmware upgrade for the NetXen adapters improves the efficiency of 10GbE-enabled servers by supporting both Microsoft TCP Chimney Offload and Linux Sockets Acceleration. It is expected to be available by the end of June, a NetXen statement said.

"By providing network acceleration to both Linux and Windows users, NetXen technology simultaneously improves CPU efficiency and throughput for the two most popular OS platforms in the industry," said David Pulling, president, NetXen. "With the data center market moving rapidly to adopt 10Gb links, this cross-OS support is vital."

Mike Gill, vice president, Industry Standard Servers, HP, said, "With the development of 10GbE offload for both Windows and Linux, HP ProLiant servers continue their leadership in enabling solutions that optimize performance and improve server efficiency so users can support more people, products and services."

The HP Multifunction Network Adapters for ProLiant DL and ML servers include the HP NC510C with a CX4 copper interface and the NC510F with an optical fiber interface. Both are capable of supporting a variety of protocols including TCP/IP, RDMA, and iSCSI.

The flexibility of NetXen's Intelligent NIC brings easily managed 10GbE technology to the forefront as the unifying technology for interconnecting servers, storage and clusters in the enterprise data center, NetXen said in a statement.

NetXen's cross-platform offload technology would be available from HP as a free firmware and software upgrade for the HP NC510C and NC510F Network Adapters.