Allied Telesis, a provider of secure Ethernet/IP access
technology, has launched a 32-bit PCI Gigabit fibre adapter card
designed to reduce the CPU usage of desktop PCs.
The AT-2916SX enables IT departments to upgrade network
throughput from 100 to 1,000mbps on their existing fibre
infrastructure. The card is available with an SC connector for
existing 100mbps fibre cabling, and an LC connector for 1,000mbps
fibre connectivity.
The card has a built-in preboot execution environment (PXE) as
standard. PXE remote boot Rom lets network administrators boot a PC
remotely and carry out software upgrades and diagnostics without
physically visiting the machine, making maintenance and upgrade
tasks easier and quicker.
Allied Telesis said the AT-2916SX was designed to reduce CPU
usage by offloading some tasks associated with processing TCP/IP
data.
Support for calculating TCP, UDP and IP checksums is integrated
into the adapter's hardware. The checksums are calculated in real
time by the controller for both the receive and transmit paths.
This improves the overall performance of the system while shifting
these CPU-intensive tasks away from the host PC, according to
Allied Telesis.
The AT-2916SX also includes link aggregation and load balancing,
and can support up to 64 virtual Lans and four priority queues.