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User Guide NetXtreme II
January 2010
Broadcom Corporation
Document ENGSRVT52-CDUM100-R Features Page 5
• Integrated 96 KB frame buffer memory
• GMII/MII Management Interface
• Four unique MAC unicast addresses
• Support for multicast addresses via 128 bits hashing hardware function
• Serial flash NVRAM memory
• JTAG support
• PCI Power Management Interface (v1.1)
• 64-bit BAR support
• EM64T processor support
• AMD-64 processor support
• 1.2 V core voltage, 0.13 µm process
• iSCSI Boot support
TCP OFFLOAD ENGINE (TOE)
The TCP/IP protocol suite is used to provide transport services for a wide range of applications for the Internet, LAN, and
for file transfer. Without the TCP Offload Engine, the TCP/IP protocol suite runs on the host CPU, consuming a very high
percentage of its resources and leaving little resources for the applications. With the use of the Broadcom NetXtreme II
adapter, the TCP/IP processing can be moved to hardware, freeing the CPU for more important tasks such as application
processing.
The Broadcom NetXtreme II adapter's TOE functionality allows simultaneous operation of up to 1024 fully offloaded TCP
connections for 1-Gbps network adapters and 1880 fully offloaded TCP connections for 10-Gbps network adapters. The
TOE support on the adapter significantly reduces the host CPU utilization while preserving the implementation of the
operating system stack.
INTERNET SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEMS INTERFACE (ISCSI)
The IETF has standardized the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI). SCSI is a popular protocol that enables
systems to communicate with storage devices, using block-level transfer (i.e., address data stored on a storage device that
is not a whole file). iSCSI maps the SCSI request/response application protocols and its standardized command set over
TCP/IP networks.
As iSCSI utilizes TCP as its sole transport protocol, it greatly benefits from hardware acceleration of the TCP processing
(i.e., use of a TOE). However, iSCSI as a Layer 5 protocol has additional mechanisms beyond the TCP layer. iSCSI
processing can also be offloaded, thereby reducing CPU utilization even further.
The Broadcom NetXtreme II adapter targets best-system performance, maintains system flexibility to changes, and supports
current and future OS convergence and integration. Therefore, the adapter's iSCSI offload architecture is unique as evident
by the split between hardware and host processing.
NOTES: The iSCSI offload feature is not available for all Broadcom network adapters.