10GBASE-T LAN on Motherboard Introduced

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. and Teranetics, a provider of Ethernet PHY technology, announced an integrated device enabling 10GBASE-T LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) controller for server and storage OEMs. The ConnectX ENt, a PCIe 2.0 (5.0GT/s) device, delivers the next generation low power server Ethernet chip with dual 10GBASE-T ports for high-performance, low-latency, and high availability. ConnectX ENt supports leading virtualization acceleration features like NetQueue and SR-IOV and also supports I/O consolidation fabrics like Data Center Ethernet (DCE), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and InfiniBand over Ethernet (IBoE).

"We are pleased to introduce the industry’s first 10GBASE-T LOM device for the mainstream server market," said Sash Sunkara, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. "With the introduction of ConnectX ENt, Mellanox delivers ease of use as data centers deploy 10Gig Ethernet with the familiar Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cables and RJ-45 connectors. ConnectX ENt further extends Mellanox’s Ethernet leadership by delivering I/O consolidation and virtualization features."

"By leveraging Teranetics’ 10GBASE-T PHY technology, Mellanox ConnectX ENt delivers RJ-45 connectivity for 10GigE in mainstream servers," said Kamal Dalmia, vice president of marketing at Teranetics. "ConnectX ENt uses a fully integrated MAC/PHY combo to deliver a power and cost-optimized device to OEMs."

"10GBASE-T on the motherboard will allow server vendors to offer a significant connectivity performance upgrade that reduces some key bottlenecks in virtualized and high-demand computing environments," said Nik Simpson, senior analyst, data center strategies at Burton Group. "An integrated MAC/PHY solution makes it possible to offer this upgrade at a reasonable cost."

Mellanox offers a complete family of ConnectX EN 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters to support a wide variety of cabling options including UTP, Twinax and CX4 for copper and SR, LR and LRM for fibre optics. Mellanox ConnectX EN and ConnectX ENt adapters provide data centers with a rich set of availability, performance and QoS features.