The new Intel X710 family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) server network adapters addresses the demanding needs of the next-generation data center. By providing unmatched features for server and network virtualization, small packet performance, and low power; the data center network is flexible, scalable, and resilient.
The X710 is available in three form factors: a standard PCIe low-profile card, a Mezzanine LOM (ML2) form factor for ThinkSystem and System x servers, and an AnyFabric form factor for ThinkServer systems.
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The Intel X710 adapters support Intel I/O Virtualization Technology, which helps accelerate data and improves application response times. For virtualized environments, the X710 adapters offer advanced features with VMDq that lower processor usage and increase I/O performance.
Mezzanine LAN-on-Motherboard Generation 2 (ML2) and AnyFabric adapters are cost-effective adapters that offers the flexibility advantages of a PCIe adapter while supporting integrated networking features, such as Wake-on-LAN and direct connectivity to the server's service processor for NCSI-compliant out-of-band systems management.
- VM load balancing: Provides traffic load balancing (Tx and Rx) across VMs that are bound to the team interface. It also provides fault tolerance if a switch, port, cable, or adapter fails.
- PCI-SIG SR-IOV implementation: Provides an implementation of the PCI-SIG standard for I/O Virtualization. The physical configuration of each port is divided into multiple virtual ports. Each virtual port is assigned to an individual VM directly by bypassing the virtual switch in the Hypervisor, which results in near-native performance.
- Next-generation VMDq: The X710 adapters support up to 256 VMDq VMs and offer enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) feature by providing weighted round-robin servicing for the Tx data. The adapters offload the data-sorting functionality from the hypervisor to the network silicon, which improves data throughput and CPU usage.
- Virtualization performance: With Intel Virtualization Technology (VT), the X710 family of adapters delivers outstanding I/O performance in virtualized server environments. These adapters reduce I/O bottlenecks by providing intelligent offloads for networking traffic per virtual machine (VM), which enables near-line rate speeds for small packets and supports almost an unlimited amount of isolated traffic flows so that you can scale your cloud environment.
- Low latency: Intel Ethernet Flow Director delivers hardware-based application steering and Intel Data Direct I/O makes the processor cache the primary destination and source of I/O data rather than main memory. Combined, latency is reduced and Intel reports a three-fold improvement in RPS.
- Mobile and cloud application acceleration: Intel's Data Plan Development Kit (DPDK) delivers an open driver where users can fine-tune small packet performance, which delivers line-rate at 128 byte, and near line-rate at 64 byte.
- VXLAN/NVGRE Hardware Offloads: These stateless offloads preserve application performance for overlay networks. With these offloads, it is possible to distribute network traffic across CPU cores. At the same time, X710 offloads LSO, GSO, and checksum from the host software, which reduces CPU overhead.
