NetEffect, Inc. announced continued innovation through its work as part of the HP Solution Builder Program. The NetEffect NE020BSC, unveiled earlier this year as the first Type I fully accelerated 10Gb Ethernet mezzanine adapter for HP BladeSystem c-Class customers, is now available as a quad-port 1GbE adapter that is field upgradable to a dual-port 10Gb Ethernet adapter. This unique, first-of-its-kind solution leverages the benefits of NetEffect’s unique Virtual Pipeline Architecture to deliver instant performance improvements to existing 1GbE configurations and, when the data center is ready to migrate to 10Gb, to be instantly upgraded to deliver 10Gb wire speeds.

The NE020BSC can be installed as a quad-port 1GbE adapter during the initial c-Class blade deployment or to boost performance in existing 1GbE infrastructures. As the data center begins migration to 10Gb, some or all NE020BSC adapters can be upgraded to dual-port 10GbE adapters through a simple field update that requires no changes to adapter hardware; no new adapter purchase is necessary.

At 1Gb or 10Gb speeds, the NetEffect NE020BSC is the industry’s lowest-power Ethernet adapter, using as little as 6.5 watts, less than half that of competing adapters. And like all NetEffect adapters, the NE020BSC uses a single software/firmware stack to simultaneously support networking, storage and clustering traffic through a single adapter. Data center administrators enjoy the ultimate flexibility and operational simplicity, knowing that one adapter can support all three types of network traffic and either 1Gb or 10Gb speeds.

“The NE020BSC has the potential to transform HP BladeSystem c-Class customer data center operations as we know them today,” said Rick Maule, CEO and president of NetEffect. “We’ve lowered the complexity and cost that have kept many data center administrators from upgrading to a 10Gb Ethernet infrastructure. Now, data centers can immediately boost 1Gb performance through the adapter’s state-of-the-art network offload technology and be assured of a straightforward migration path to 10Gb when the time is right. It doesn’t get any simpler, more flexible or more affordable.”

“By supporting different interconnect options, HP BladeSystem c-Class customers can run their businesses more efficiently by reducing power costs, simplifying application deployment, improving network management, streamlining upgrade processes and easily migrating to faster network connections such as 10GbE," said Mark Potter, vice president, HP BladeSystem. ”Paired with the c-Class architecture, the NetEffect NE020BSC is the first c-Class adaptor card to offer customers a choice of two interconnect speed options bringing more flexibility to their infrastructures."

“NetEffect is helping to simplify migration to 10Gb Ethernet,” said Vikram Mehta, president and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies. “The new NetEffect dual-speed capable mezzanine adapter is compatible with both our Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet blade server switches for the HP BladeSystem c-Class. So customers can ‘future proof' their networks by deploying our Gigabit blade switch today with a quad-port 1GbE NetEffect adapter, then later upgrade to our 10 Gigabit blade switch and simply update the Gigabit adapter to operate as a dual-port 10 Gigabit device – without purchasing new adapter hardware.”

The NetEffect NE020BSC dual-speed capable 1Gb/10Gb accelerated Ethernet adapter for the HP BladeSystem c-Class system is available now. Pricing begins at $895 with volume discounts available.