Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter I350-T2V2

The Intel I350T2V2 Dual-Port PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter features the bridgeless Intel Ethernet Controller I350 and is suitable for both virtualized and iSCSI unified networking environments. This adapter includes power management technologies such as Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) and DMA Coalescing (DMAC). The adapter includes Intel Virtualization Technology for connectivity to deliver I/O virtualization and Quality of Service (QoS) features designed directly into the controller on the adapter.

With Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP), virtual controllers can be used by the Linux host directly and/or assigned to virtual machines. With this port partitioning, administrators can create up to 8 dedicated connections on a single Ethernet port for use in bare-metal and virtualized server deployments. In a bare-metal Linux server, host processes can be assigned to dedicated network resources to provide traffic isolation and balanced bandwidth allocation. In a virtualized environment, a VM can be assigned to a virtual controller to reduce the CPU overhead seen when using a software-based network bridge by offloading network traffic management to the controller.

This Ethernet server adapter with native iSCSI initiators built into Microsoft Windows, Linux, and VMware ESX platforms provides a simple way to connect to iSCSI SANs. These native initiators are broadly tested using multiple generations of operating systems, storage systems, and OS tools to help ensure reliability and ease of use. In addition, this adapter includes a number of hardware features designed to accelerate iSCSI traffic and enhance data processing. TCP segmentation offload and checksum offload capabilities help reduce processor usage, increase throughput, and deliver exceptional iSCSI performance. Using native OS initiators, it supports the CRC-32 digest instruction set included with Intel Xeon processor products, which improves transmission reliability and delivers an enterprise class iSCSI solution.

Advanced Power Management Technologies (PMTs) in the Ethernet Server Adapter I350 enables enterprises to configure power options on the adapter and more effectively manage their power consumption. The adapter supports the IEEE802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) standard so that, during periods of low network activity, EEE reduces the power consumption of an Ethernet connection by negotiating with a compliant EEE switch port to transition to a low power idle (LPI) state. This reduces the controller power to approximately 50% of its normal operating power, saving power on the network port and the switch port. As soon as increased network traffic is detected, the controller and the switch quickly come back to full power to handle the increased network traffic. EEE is supported for both 1000BASE-T and 100BASE-TX.

The adapter also features DMA Coalescing (DMAC) power saving. Based on the configurable DMAC settings, incoming packets are buffered momentarily before any DMA calls are made. This enables the controller to intelligently identify opportunities to batch multiple packets together so that when components are wakened from lower power states they can efficiently handle the batched packets at the same time. This enables platform components to remain in lower power states longer, which reduce platform energy consumption. DMAC synchronizes DMA calls across all controller ports to ensure maximum power savings.

General
Halogen-free dual-port Gigabit Ethernet adapter with copper interface
Innovative power management features including Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) and DMA Coalescing for increased efficiency and reduced power consumption
Flexible I/O virtualization for port partitioning and quality of service (QoS) of up to 32 virtual ports
Scalable iSCSI performance delivering cost-effective SAN connectivity
High-performing bridgeless design supporting PCI Express Gen 2.1 5GT/s
Enables higher bandwidth and throughput from standard and low-profile PCIe slots and servers
IEEE 802.3 auto-negotiation for automatic link configuration for speed, duplex, flow control
1Gb/s Ethernet IEEE 802.3, 802.3u, 802.3ab specifications compliant for robust operation over installed base of CAT5 twisted-pair cabling
Integrated PHY for 10/100/1000 Mb/s for multispeed, full, and half-duplex
IEEE 802.3x and 802.3z compliant flow control support with software-controllable Rx thresholds and Tx pause frames
Local control of network congestion levels
Frame loss reduced from receive overruns
Automatic cross-over detection function (MDI/MDI-X)
The PHY automatically detects which application is being used and configures itself accordingly
IEEE 1588 protocol and 802.1AS implementation
Time-stamping and synchronization of time sensitive applications
Distribute common time to media devices
Power Management and Efficiency
Designed for low power consumption
IEEE802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)
Power consumption of the PHY is reduced by approximately 50% link transitions to low power Idle (LPI) state as defined in the IEEE802.3az (EEE) standard
DMA coalescing reduces platform power consumption by coalescing, aligning, and synchronizing DMA
Enables synchronizing port activity and power management of memory, CPU, and RC internal circuitry
Smart Power Down (SPD) at S0 no link / Sx no link
PHY powers down circuits and clocks that are not required for detection of link activity
Active State Power Management (ASPM) support
Optionality compliance bit to help determine whether to enable ASPM or whether to run ASPM compliance tests to support entry to L0s
LAN disable function offers the option to disable the LAN Port and/or PCIe function
Allows disabling just the PCIe function but keeping the LAN port that resides on it fully active (for manageability purposes and BMC pass-through traffic)
Advanced Power Management (APM) Support (formerly Wake on LAN)
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification v2.0c
Magic Packet wake-up enable with unique MAC address
APM—designed to receive a broadcast or unicast packet with an explicit data pattern (Magic Pack) and assert a signal to wake up the system
ACPI—PCIe power management based wake-up that can generate system wake-up events from a number of sources
ACPI register set and power down functionality supporting D0 and D3 states
A power-managed link speed control lowers link speed (and power) when highest link performance is not required
Power management controls in the MAC and PHY can be entered into a low-power state
Low power link up
Link speed control enables a link to come up at the lowest possible speed in cases where power is more important than performance
Power Management Protocol Offload (Proxying) avoids spurious wake up events and reduce system power consumption when the device is in D3 low power state and system is in S3 or S4 low power states
Latency Tolerance Reporting (LTR) reports service latency requirements for memory reads and writes to the root complex for system power management
I/O Virtualization
Eight transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) queue pairs per port
Supports VMware NetQueue, and Microsoft VMQ
Flexible port partitioning
Virtual functions appear as Ethernet controllers in Linux and can be assigned to VMs, kernel processes or teamed using the Linux bonding drivers
Support for PCI-SIG SR-IOV specification, up to 8 virtual functions per port
Rx/Tx round-robin scheduling assigns time slices in equal portions in circular order for Rx/Tx for balanced bandwidth allocation
Traffic isolation allows processes or VMs to be assigned a dedicated VF with VLAN support
Traffic steering offloads sorting and classifying traffic in to VF or queues
VM to VM packet forwarding (packet loopback) enables PCIe speed switching between VM
MAC and VLAN anti-spoofing enables anti spoofing filter on MAC addresses and VLAN for VFs.
Monitors queues and VFs for malformed descriptors that might indicate a malicious or buggy driver
Storm control limits the broadcast or multicast traffic it can receive
Per-pool statistics, offloads, and jumbo frames support
Each queue pair or pool has its own statistics, off-loads, and Jumbo support options
Independent Function Level Reset (FLR) for physical and virtual functions
VF resets only the part of the logic dedicated to specific VF and does not influence the shared port
IEEE 802.1q Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) support with VLAN tag insertion, stripping and packet filtering for up to 4096 VLAN tags
Adding (for transmits) and removing (for receives) of VLAN tags with no VM involvement
Filtering packets belonging to certain VLANs
IEEE 802.1q advanced packet filtering for lower processor utilization
Mirroring rules offers the ability to reflect network traffic to a given VM or VLAN based on up to four rules
Support for simple VEPA for external VM switching
VLAN, unicast, and multicast VF promiscuous modes
Stateless Offloads/Performance
TCP/UDP, IPv4 checksum offloads (Rx/ Tx/Large-send)
Extended Tx descriptors for more offload capabilities for improved CPU usage
Checksum and segmentation capability extended to standard packet type
IPv6 support for IP/TCP and IP/UDP receive checksum offload
Tx TCP segmentation offload (IPv4, IPv6) for increased throughput and lower processor usage
Compatible with large-send offload
Transmit Segmentation Offloading (TSO)
Large TCP/UDP I/O is segmented by the device to L2 packets according to the requested MSS
Interrupt throttling control limits maximum interrupt rate and improves CPU utilization
Legacy and Message Signal Interrupt (MSI) modes for interrupt mapping
Message Signal Interrupt Extension (MSI-X) for dynamic allocation of up to 25 vectors per port
Intelligent interrupt generation for enhanced software device driver performance
Receive Side Scaling (RSS) for Windows environment
Scalable I/O for Linux environments (IPv4, IPv6, TCP/UDP); up to 8 queues per port
Support for packets up to 9.5kb (Jumbo Frames) improves the system performance related to handling of network data on multiprocessor systems
Features low latency interrupts based on the sensitivity of the incoming data, the controller can bypass the automatic moderation of time intervals between the interrupts
Header/packet data split in receive helps the driver to focus on the relevant part of the packet without the need to parse it
PCIe v2.1 TLP processing hint requester provides hints on a per transaction basis
Descriptor ring management hardware for transmit and receive
Optimized descriptor fetch and write-back for efficient system memory and PCIe bandwidth usage
Remote Boot Options
Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) flash interface support enables system boot up via the EFI (32 bit and 64 bit)
Flash interface for PXE 2.1 option ROM
Intel Ethernet iSCSI remote boot for Windows, Linux, and VMware
Provides additional network management capability
Intel Boot Agent software: Linux boot via PXE or BOOTP, Windows Deployment Services, or UEFI enables networked computer to boot using a program code image supplied by a remote server
Complies with the Pre-boot eXecution Environment (PXE) version 2.1 specification
Manageability Features
Supports Management Component Transport Protocol (MCTP)
Baseboard management controller (BMC) communication between add-in devices using a standardized protocol
Firmware-based thermal management enables programming via the BMC to initiate thermal actions and report thermal occurrences
IEEE 802.3 MII Management Interface enables the MAC and software to monitor and control the state of the PHY
Enhanced control capabilities through PHY reset, link status, duplex indication, and MAC Dx power state
Watchdog timer defined by the FLASHT register to minimize flash updates
Extended error reporting for messaging support to communicate multiple types/severity of errors
Controller memory protection protects main internal memories by error correcting code (ECC) or parity bits
Adapter
Plug and play support
I/O Acceleration Technology (Intel I/OAT) for system throughput
Ships with full-height bracket installed
Low-profile bracket included in package
Supports cable lengths up to 328’ (100m)