Intel X550T1BLK User Manual

product brief

Intel® Ethernet Converged Network
Adapter X550

10GBASE-T Converged Network Adapter (CNA)

Simplies Migration to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), Provides iSCSI,
FCoE, Virtualization and Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP)

Key Features

• Low cost, low power, 10 GbE

performance for the entire
datacenter.

• Intel’s second generation, single- and
dual-port 10GBASE-T controller with

integrated MAC and PHY.

• Standard CAT 6a cabling with RJ45

connectors.

• Supports NBASE-T* technology (2.5

and 5.0 GbE over CAT 5e)1.

• Backward compatibility with existing

1000BASE-T networks simplies the

transition to 10 GbE.

• PCI Express* (PCIe*) v 3.0 with up to

8.0 G T/s .

• Unied networking delivering LAN,

iSCSI and FCoE in one low-cost CNA.

• Flexible I/O virtualization for port

partitioining and Quality of Service
(QoS) of up to 64 virtual ports.

• Reliable, proven 10 GbE technology
from Intel Corporation.

10 GbE for the Broad Market

The Intel® Ethernet Converged Network
Adapter X550 is the newest innovation
in Intel’s leadership to drive 10 GbE into
the broad server market. This adapter
hosts Intel’s latest Ethernet silicon, the
Intel® Ethernet Controller X550, a low
cost single-chip 10GBASE-T solution
for today’s server platforms.

Simplify the Transition to 10 GbE

With 10GBASE-T, migration to 10 GbE

is dramatically simplied with backward

compatibility for your existing GbE
network infrastructure. Install an X550
adapter into a server and the auto­negotiation between 1 GbE and 10
GbE provides the necessary backwards
compatibility that most customers
require for a smooth transition and
easy migration to 10 GbE. When
time and budget allows, 10GBASE-T
switches can be added any time to

experience the full benets of 10 GbE.

10GBASE-T uses the copper twisted­pair cables that are very familiar to IT
professionals today. It is all you know
and love about 1000BASE-T. The
knowledge, training, and investment
in BASE-T are preserved. 10GBASE-T
is the easiest and most versatile 10
GbE interface that can be deployed
anywhere in your data center. Its

exible reach from 1 meter to 100

meters supports the latest network
architectures including Top of Rack
(ToR), Middle of Row (MoR), and End of
Row (EoR).

10 GbE Performance at Low Cost
and Low Power

The new Intel® Ethernet Converged
Network Adapter X550 is the lowest
cost way to deploy 10 GbE in your data
center today. The Intel X550 uses low
cost CAT 6 and CAT 6a cabling. Chances
are this cabling already exists in the
data center.

A way for Intel to reduce cost and
power is to integrate components
into a single-chip solution. Why is
integration important? First, integration
translates to lower power. This means
no active heat sink and reduces
the per-port power consumption.
Second, integration also means a
lower cost per port, because two
separate components are not needed.
When cabling is accounted for, cost

eciencies realized from a single part

mean 10GBASE-T is the lowest cost
media to deploy.

With lower cost and power, 10GBASE-T
is ideal for broad deployment.
10GBASE-T is an option for every rack
and tower server in the data center.
The new Intel® Ethernet Converged

Product Brief

Intel® Ethernet Converged Network

Adapter X550

Network Connectivity

2

Network Adapter X550 (CNA X550
family) provides bandwidth-intensive

applications with highly aordable

10 GbE network performance and

cost-eective RJ45 connectivity for

distances up to 100 meters.

Exciting New Data Center Models

More than just a 10 times per-port
increase in performance by using the
CNA X550 family versus a standard
1 GbE adapter opens doors for exciting

new usage models, including unied
networking, I/O virtualization, and
exible port partitioning.

A Complete Unified Network
Solution

Converging data and storage onto
one fabric eliminates the need for
multiple adapters and cables per
server. Furthermore, 10 GbE provides
the bandwidth to converge these
multiple fabrics into a single wire. A key
capability that makes all this possible is

trac class separation provided by Data
Center Bridging (DCB). DCB provides a

collection of standards for additional
QoS functionality such as lossless

delivery, congestion notication,
priority-based ow control, and priority

groups. This enables the CNA X550
family to provide a one-wire solution

with virtual pipes for the dierent
classes of trac:

• Data: best eort delivery of standard
LAN trac.

• Storage: NAS or SAN including

lossless FCoE and iSCSI.

• Management: Guaranteed
connectivity of data center IP

management.

Unified Networking Principles

Intel’s unied networking solutions are

built on the principles that have made

us successful in Ethernet:

• Open architecture integrates
networking with the server, enabling
IT managers to reduce complexity and

overhead while enabling a exible and

scalable data center network.

• Intelligent ooads lower cost and

power while delivering the application
performance that customers expect.

• Proven unied networking is built on

trusted Intel Ethernet technology,
enabling customers to deploy FCoE
or iSCSI with the same quality used in
their traditional Ethernet network.

Intel’s unied networking solutions are

enabled through a combination of Intel
Ethernet products along with network
and storage protocols integrated in the
operating systems. This combination
provides proven reliability with
the performance that data center
administrators around the world have
come to expect from Intel.

Best Choice for Server
Virtualization

Virtualization changes server resource

deployment and management by
running multiple applications and
operating systems on a single physical
server.

With Intel® Virtualization Technology

for connectivity (VT-c), the CNA
X550 family delivers outstanding I/O

performance and QoS in virtualized

data centers and cloud environments.

I/O virtualization advances network

connectivity used in today’s servers

to more ecient models by providing
FPP, multiple Tx/Rx queues, Tx queue

rate-limiting, and on-controller
QoS functionality that is useful for
both virtual and non-virtual server
deployments.

The CNA X550 family reduces I/O
bottlenecks by providing intelligent

ooad of networking trac per VM,

enabling near-native performance
and VM scalability. The host-based

virtualization technologies include:

• VMDq for emulated path: NIC-based
VM queue sorting enabling ecient

hypervisor-based switching.

• SR-IOV for direct assignment: NIC-

based isolation and switching for
various virtual station instances

enabling optimal CPU usage in
virtualized environment.

Additionally, the CNA X550 family
provides virtual bridging support that
delivers both host-side and switch-side

control and management of virtualized

I/O as well as the following modes of

virtualized operation:

• VEPA: IEEE 802.1Qbg support for
Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator.

• VEB: Virtual Ethernet Bridge support

with Intel V T.

Networking Virtualization

Network virtualization is the next big

trend in creating an agile data center.
The X550 CNA family of adapters are
ready to help take you to the next level.

• VXLAN and NVGRE ooads:
These stateless ooads preserve

application performance for overlay

networks. With these ooads it is
possible to distribute network trac
across a CPU core.

• Preserves application performance in
network virtualized environment.

Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP)

By taking advantage of the PCI-SIG*
SR-IOV specication, FPP enables

virtual Ethernet controllers that can be
used by a Linux* host directly and/or
assigned directly to virtual machines
for hypervisor virtual switch bypass.

FPP enables the assignment of up

to 64 Linux host processes or virtual
machines per port to virtual functions.

An administrator can use FPP to control

the partitioning of the bandwidth across

multiple virtual functions. FPP can also

provide balanced QoS by giving each
assigned virtual function equal access
to 10 Gb/s of bandwidth.

The combination of 10 GbE and unied
networking helps organizations

overcome connectivity challenges and
simplify the data center infrastructure.
10 GbE provides a simple, well-

understood fabric for virtualized data

centers, one that helps reduce cost and
complexity as the number of Virtual
Machines (VMs) continue to grow.