Broadcom Intros Ethernet Controller

SAN FRANCISCO -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors, today announced its latest chip offering in the NetXtreme II(TM) family of Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) converged network interface controllers (C-NICs). The new NetXtreme II C-NIC is the first to support the PCI Express(R) bus architecture, and continues the product family's distinction as the only line of GbE controllers in the industry to support a TCP/IP offload engine (TOE), iSCSI, and Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) on a single-chip platform.

Broadcom(R) NetXtreme II C-NIC technology is designed as a cost-point replacement to standard Gigabit Ethernet implementations enabling the adoption of TOE, iSCSI and RDMA as a baseline function for blade, high-density rack and tower server LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) applications, as well as for standalone high-performance network adapters.

Announced today is the NetXtreme II BCM5708, representing the second generation of C-NIC silicon solutions from Broadcom. The first generation C-NIC, the BCM5706, is now in volume production. The new BCM5708 C-NIC is sampling to early access customers and features the functionality of TCP/IP offload, iSCSI and RDMA, while adding the PCI Express peripheral connect interface to the architecture. Since PCI Express is the preferred LOM connection interface on most servers being designed today, Broadcom has enabled major server OEMs to incorporate the BCM5708 C-NIC into industry standard high-volume servers currently under development. In conjunction with Broadcom's first generation PCI-X(R)-based BCM5706 C-NIC, the company now has a NetXtreme II C-NIC solution for both PCI Express and PCI-X bus architectures.

"We're excited to introduce the BCM5708 and believe that with our latest addition to the NetXtreme II C-NIC family, Broadcom's C-NIC solutions will become a baseline of communications technology for the next-generation of volume servers," said Greg Young, Senior Director and General Manager of Broadcom's High-Speed Controller Line of Business. "By delivering a second generation product with a PCI Express interface, at a cost point necessary to replace standard LOMs, we expect the NetXtreme II line of C-NICs to redefine enterprise networks and servers as we know them today."

Broadcom Corp.