Solarflare Communications, Inc., provider of standards-compliant 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) silicon, announced recent 10GBASE-T product demonstration with CommScope, Inc., in enterprise cabling infrastructure solutions for communications networks. The demonstration was held at the HP Technology Forum & Expo in Las Vegas.

Showcasing Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technology over a 10GBASE-T network using CommScope and Solarflare products, the demo used iSCSI as the vehicle to talk to the centralized storage where virtual machines and their data are stored. The Hyper-V role uses the native Microsoft SCSI drivers within the native Windows Server 2009 platform to communicate with the storage devices, start and run the virtual machines. Together, the solution shows the convergence of iSCSI and networking over a low-cost and low-power 10GbE network without the need for special iSCSI host bus adapters, other protocols or specialized network gear.

Using IOMeter to drive over 2900 MB/s of iSCSI storage network traffic, the topology consists of a 10GBASE-T NIC and switch using Solarflare technology and Ethernet traffic running over 100 meters of SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D Category 6A cabling in a six-around-one 4 connector configuration—representing the worst-case channel configuration as specified in the TIA augmented Category 6 standard. The cornerstone of this solution, Solarflare's Solarstorm SFC4000E vNIC 10GbE controller, accelerates network traffic efficiently with wire speed throughput on all the major virtualization environments.

"The proliferation of server virtualization, the growth of rich media applications and the convergence of data and storage networking are driving the need for cost effective, easy-to-use 10GbE networking," said Bruce Tolley, vice president of marketing, Solarflare Communications.

"With 10GBASE-T technology that supports virtualization, iSCSI and network convergence over standard Ethernet, data centers and enterprises can easily and cost-effectively upgrade their networks to 10GbE and support advanced business applications," said Luc Adriaenssens, senior vice president, Research & Development and Technology, CommScope.

About Solarflare 10 Gigabit Products
Solarflare designs and develops the highest-performing, lowest-power, standards-compliant 10GbE controllers and 10GBASE-T transceivers on the market. Optimized for all key virtualization platforms including Citrix XenEnterprise, Microsoft’s Hyper-V and VMware’s ESX server, Solarflare’s Solarstorm Ethernet controller consumes less than 2.2 watts at full line-rate performance delivering the optimal balance in performance and power efficiency. Solarflare's 10Xpress 10GBASE-T PHY supports distances of greater than 100 meters on UTP Category 6A cabling, 100 meters on STP Category 6, 55 meters on UTP Category 6, and 45 meters on UTP Category 5E cabling. When combined on a server adapter, Solarflare’s 10Xpress 10GBASE-T PHY and Solarstorm 10GbE controller deliver 10 times the performance of a 1 Gigabit NIC at half the power consumption of previous 10GbE server adapters.