Intel I350-T2 User Manual
Product Brief
Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter I350
Network Connectivity
Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter I350
Dual- and Quad-port Gigabit Ethernet server adapters
designed with performance enhancing features and new
power management technologies
Key Features
• Halogen-free dual- or quad-port
Gigabit Ethernet adapters with
copper or fiber interface options
• Innovative power management
features including Energy Efficient
Ethernet (EEE) and DMA Coalescing
for increased efficiency and reduced
power consumption
• Flexible I/O virtualization for port
partitioning and quality of service
(QoS) of up to 32 virtual ports
• Scalable iSCSI performance deliver-
ing cost-effective SAN connectivity
• High-performing bridgeless design
supporting PCI Express* Gen 2.1
5G T/s
• Reliable and proven Gigabit Ethernet
technology from Intel Corporation
Overview
The new Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter I350 family builds on Intel’s history of excellence in Ethernet products. Intel continues its market leadership with this new generation of PCIe* GbE network adapters. Built with the bridgeless Intel® Ethernet Controller
I350, these adapters represent the next step in the Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networking
evolution for the enterprise and data center by introducing new levels of performance
through industry-leading enhancements for both virtualized and iSCSI Unied Networking environments. This new family of adapters also includes new power management
technologies such as Energy Ecient Ethernet (EEE) and DMA Coalescing (DMAC).
Flexible I/O Virtualization
The Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter I350 family includes Intel® Virtualization Technology
for connectivity (Intel® VT-c) to deliver I/O virtualization and Quality of Service (QoS)
features designed directly into the controller on the adapter. I/O virtualization advances
network connectivity models used in today’s servers to more ecient models by providing Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP), multiple Rx/Tx queues, and on-controller QoS
functionality that can be used in both virtual and non-virtual server deployments.
By taking advantage of the PCI-SIG SR-IOV specication, Intel® Ethernet products enable Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP). With FPP, virtual controllers can be used by the
Linux* host directly and/or assigned to virtual machines. With this port partitioning,
administrators can create up to eight dedicated connections on a single Ethernet port
for use in bare-metal and virtualized server deployments.
In a bare-metal Linux server, host processes can be assigned to dedicated network
resources to provide trac isolation and balanced bandwidth allocation.
In a virtualized environment, a VM can be assigned to a virtual
controller to reduce the CPU overhead seen when using a
software-based network bridge by ooading network trac
management to the controller.
Scalable iSCSI Performance
An Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350 with native iSCSI initiators built into Microsoft* Windows*, Linux*, and VMware* ESX
platforms provides a simple, dependable, cost-eective way
to connect to iSCSI SANs. These native initiators are broadly
tested using multiple generations of operating systems, storage systems, and OS tools to help ensure reliability and ease
of use. Standardizing on Intel® Ethernet Adapters for iSCSI
enables administrators to use a single initiator, TCP/IP stack,
and a common set of management tools and IT policies. In
addition, Intel® Ethernet Server Adapters include a number
of hardware features designed to accelerate iSCSI trac and
enhance data processing. For example, TCP segmentation
ooad and checksum ooad capabilities help reduce processor usage, increase throughput, and deliver exceptional iSCSI
performance. Finally, using native OS initiators, an Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350 supports the CRC-32 digest instruction set included with Intel® Xeon® processor products, which
improves transmission reliability and delivers an enterpriseclass iSCSI solution.
Power Management Technologies
Today, companies everywhere are looking for ways to decrease energy consumption across the enterprise to reduce
costs and environmental impact, while at the same time solving increasingly important power density challenges. That’s
why Intel has introduced new, advanced Power Management
Technologies (PMTs) with the Intel Ethernet Server Adapter
I350 family that enable enterprises to congure power options on the adapter and more eectively manage their power
consumption.
Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)
The Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350 family supports the
IEEE802.3az Energy Ecient Ethernet (EEE) standard so that,
during periods of low network activity, EEE reduces the power
consumption of an Ethernet connection by negotiating with
a compliant EEE switch port to transition to a low power idle
(LPI) state. This reduces the controller power to approximately
50% of its normal operating power, saving power on the network port and the switch port. As soon as increased network
trac is detected, the controller and the switch quickly come
back to full power to handle the increased network trac. EEE
is supported for both 1000BASE-T and 100BASE-TX.
DMA Coalescing
Another power management technology that can reduce
power on the server platform is DMA Coalescing (DMAC).
Typically, when a packet arrives at a server, DMA calls are
made to transfer the packet within the server. These calls
wake up the processor, memory and other system components from a lower power state in order to perform the
tasks required to handle the incoming packet.
Based on the congurable DMAC settings, incoming packets
are buered momentarily before any DMA calls are made. This
enables the controller to intelligently identify opportunities to
batch multiple packets together so that when components are
wakened from lower power states they can eciently handle
the batched packets at the same time. This enables platform
components to remain in lower power states longer, which
can dramatically reduce platform energy consumption. DMAC
synchronizes DMA calls across all controller ports to ensure
maximum power savings.
Software Tools and Management
Intel® Advanced Network Services (Intel® ANS) include new
teaming technologies and techniques such as Virtual Machine
Load-Balancing (VMLB) for Hyper-V environments. Today,
Intel ANS includes a variety of teaming congurations for up
to eight adapters, support for mixed vendors server adapters
teaming and includes support for 802.1q VLANs, making Intel
ANS one of the most capable and comprehensive tools for
supporting server adapter teaming.
Additionally, Intel® PROSet for Windows* Device Manager and
PROset CL extends driver functionality to provide additional
reliability and Quality of Service features and conguration.
Sourc e: Intel L abs
Energy Efficient Ethernet reduces the controller power to approximately 50% of its
normal operating level.
2
2
High
Power
Low
As shown by the red line, components have
less time between DMA calls to reach and
stay in lower power states.
High
Power
Low
With more time between DMA calls, components can reach lower power states and
remain in them longer.
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