Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that the company's leading NetXtreme(R) II converged network interface controllers (C-NICs) support the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack. The combination of Broadcom(R) C-NIC technology and Microsoft's Scalable Networking Pack delivers the industry's most advanced network performance while reducing operating system bottlenecks, such as central processing unit (CPU) overhead and memory bandwidth related to network packet processing, without requiring changes to existing applications or network management tools. These network performance enhancements will soon be available on next generation servers developed by the leading server original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide.
Continual improvements in network speeds, coupled with ever increasing network traffic loads, have resulted in dramatic increases in operating system resources associated with network packet processing. Due to this overhead, applications and services that depend on the network can experience significant scaling issues that effectively reduce the performance gains that are possible with increased network speeds. The Scalable Networking Pack enables the next generation of server networking hardware, providing scalability and performance enhancements to existing and future Microsoft Windows Server 2003 investments.
To support these Scalable Networking enhancements, Broadcom worked strategically with Microsoft on a number of networking technologies focused on improving the overhead associated with network packet processing on the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system. The technological enhancements developed by Broadcom are featured within all NetXtreme II C-NIC products and include support for Microsoft's TCP Chimney Offload and Receive-side Scaling functionality.
TCP Chimney Offload provides an automated offload of transmission control protocol (TCP) traffic processing via a TCP offload engine (TOE) that is incorporated in Broadcom's NetXtreme II C-NIC devices. In this model, the TCP Chimney Offload greatly reduces CPU overhead by delegating network packet processing tasks to the C-NIC, freeing up CPU cycles to perform other application tasks such as supporting more users sessions or processing application requests with lower latency.
Broadcom NetXtreme II C-NIC devices also feature Receive-side Scaling functionality, in support of the Scalable Networking Pack, that enables improvements in the processing of inbound network traffic. Receive-side Scaling helps load-balanced incoming network traffic across multiple CPUs, sharing the network traffic load as either a system load or as network conditions vary. In either case, any application that has significant network traffic and runs on a multiprocessor host (i.e web server or file server), can benefit from Receive-side Scaling functionality within Broadcom's C-NIC devices.
"The combination of Broadcom C-NICs and Microsoft's Scalable Networking Pack enables IT professionals to cost-effectively scale their existing network-based applications to meet the growing demands placed on their IT infrastructure resources," said Greg Young, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's High-Speed Controller Line of Business. "Broadcom is very excited about the release of the Scalable Networking Pack and we believe that our C-NIC implementation, in support of the Scalable Networking Pack, will become the baseline technology for the next generation of volume servers."
"Through the combination of the Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack and Broadcom's C-NIC technology, IT professionals can easily benefit from the performance and scalability gains made possible by today's faster networks," said Margaret Arakawa, Senior Director, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft Corporation. "By enabling existing Windows Server 2003 installations to benefit from Broadcom's C-NIC offload capabilities, the Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack reduces the need to purchase additional servers or replace existing hardware investments."
NetXtreme II C-NIC Product Description
Broadcom's NetXtreme II family of C-NICs is designed to drastically change the way servers are built and deployed in the future. This family of single-chip C-NIC devices simultaneously runs four specific functions including accelerated TOE for data networking, accelerated iSCSI for block storage networking, accelerated remote direct memory access (RDMA) for high-performance server clustering, and remote system management pass-through functions -- all over a single Ethernet fabric. By converging disparate network traffic over Ethernet, NetXtreme II C-NICs enable a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) relative to configuring, maintaining and running four separate and disparate networks.
Broadcom has shipped over 100 million Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controller chips to date, demonstrating its leadership in the GbE LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) market and continues to maintain a leading position in GbE revenue and units shipped according to independent market research firms.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Our products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. Broadcom provides the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything(R).
Broadcom, one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies with annual revenue of more than $2.5 billion, is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at http://www.broadcom.com.
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All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
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Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Scott Harlin
Public Relations Manager
949-926-5226
sharlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Vice President, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contacts
Allen Light
Product Line Manager, NetXtreme II C-NICs
949-926-5744
alight@broadcom.com