Broadcom has begun sampling its new NetXtreme C-Series 10G/25G/40G/50G Ethernet controller product family designed for supporting greater virtual machine density in cloud data centers.
The BCM57300 NetXtreme C-Series Ethernet controllers offer bidirectional 50G throughput with 30 Mpps performance and integrated flow processing capabilities from the server to the top-of-rack switch They complete Broadcom’s end-to-end 25/50G data center solution, which also includes the newly introduced StrataXGS Tomahawk Ethernet switch
Broadcom said its integrated “TruFlow” flow processing can double network throughput and provide up to a 50 percent increase in application performance compared to a software-only solution. The BCM57300 provides hardware-based, congestion notification responses that are 5,000x faster than traditional software-based approaches. When combined with StrataXGS switches, the notification enable data centers to avoid network congestion before it happens.
Key features of Broadcom’s NetXtreme C-Series Controllers:
- vSwitch Acceleration: TruFlow moves virtual switching functionality from the host CPU into the Broadcom C-Series Controller, increasing available CPU cycles for application processing
- Flow Scalability: TruFlow distributes flow processing into the server endpoints
- Software Defined Networking: TruFlow implements the fundamental SDN protocol constructs of classification/match/action processing in hardware, including the latest OpenFlow standard. Distributing SDN protocols into the BCM57300 enables cloud operators to reap the benefits of SDN in their data centers with a flexible, scalable and dynamic network.
- Low power: <5w li="">
- Low chip latency: 1.5-µs round trip
- Dual-Port 10/25G and single-port 40/50G
- Industry’s smallest (14×14 mm) 25/50G Controller package
- Integrated base management controller (BMC)
“NetXtreme C-Series raises the bar for Ethernet controllers and enables a cost-effective path from 10G to 25G,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, Broadcom Executive Vice President and General Manager, Infrastructure & Networking Group. “Pushing the 25/50G Ethernet specification, which Broadcom defined and co-founded as an industry standard, to the server endpoint solidifies Broadcom’s end-to-end offering.”
Broadcom will be supplyting offers two families of standard adapter cards based on its BCM57300 NetXtreme C-Series of Ethernet controllers: PCIe NIC and OCP Mezzanine.
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s923886
In April 2015, Broadcom began sampling the next-generation of its StrataXGS Trident Ethernet switching silicon, which has been optimized to meet the bandwidth, scalability and efficiency demands of 10GbE virtualized data centers. The new silicon offers 1.28 terabit per second (Tbps) switching performance, 30 percent lower power and double the performance for data center virtualization overlays, such as VXLAN.
The 28 nanometer (nm) Trident-II+ Series, which provides a drop-in power and efficiency improvement over the previous version, brings a number of features for network virtualization, including single-pass VXLAN routing that doubles gateway performance in all network topologies, as well as support for pre-standard GENEVE overlays.
As a complement to Broadcom’s latest StrataXGS Tomahawk and StrataDNX switch SoCs, the Trident II+ Series provides 100GbE connections to the spine layer and between racks, while supporting 10GbE connections to the servers in enterprise and private cloud deployments.
In September 2014, Broadcom introduced its next-generation, StrataXGS “Tomahawk” switch, packing 2 Tbps of switching performance in a single chip that is capable of supporting 32 ports of 100 Gigabit Ethernet, 64 ports of 40GE/50GE or 128 ports of 25GE.
The new chip, which represents the 7th generation of Broadcom Ethernet switching silicon, is designed for the programmable fabrics needed in next-gen, cloud-scale data centers.
The StrataXGS Tomahawk Series is powered by more than 7 billion integrated transistors in 28nm. It supports new 25GE and 50GE protocol standards, and is the first chip to scale to 32-ports of 100G on a single device.
Significantly, Tomahawk implements Broadcom’s FLEXGS and Smart-Flow technology, enabling the switch to be software configured for specific policies while preserving deterministic latency. The new design brings a 12X increase in application policy scale compared to previous generation switches, along with increased flexibility of packet lookups and key generation, and rich load balancing and traffic redirection controls. This supports an extensive suite of user configurable functions for flow processing, security, network virtualization, measurement/monitoring, congestion management and traffic engineering.
In May 015, Avago Technologies agreed to acquire Broadcom for $17 billion in cash consideration and the economic equivalent of approximately 140 million Avago ordinary shares. — an implied value for the total transaction of $37 billion. The merger will create the third largest global semiconductor company with strong presence in wired infrastructure, wireless infrastructure, enterprise storage, ASICs, PHYs, Ethernet switching silicon and set-top box silicon. It will have combined annual revenues of approximately $15 billion and $77 billion in enterprise value.
