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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Breaking News -
Networking:
Broadcom Revolutionizes LAN
Communications
Broadcom Corp, a leading provider of silicon solutions enabling broadband
communications, announced the availability of a new family of Broadcom
NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controllers that implement the advanced PCI
Express host interface. Announced are the BCM5721, BCM5751 and BCM5751M, which
have been designed specifically for use in server, desktop and mobile PCs,
respectively. They represent the world's first and only GbE controllers to
support the PCI Express specification.
For the past 10 years, the PCI bus architecture has been ubiquitously
deployed
as a system I/O interconnect technology. However, as processors, memory and
other devices in the PC scale to increasingly faster speeds, it has become
necessary for interconnect technology to advance as well. PCI Express is an
advanced version of the current PCI bus that provides a standards-based,
high-speed, low pin count, chip-to-chip interface for computing platforms.
Rather than utilizing a shared, parallel bus structure such as with PCI or
AGP, PCI Express provides a new architecture whereby each link is a serial
communications channel comprised of two differential wire pairs that provide
2.5 Gigabits per second of throughput in each direction. The new standard is
the natural evolution of the AGP, PCI and PCI-X standards used today. Its low
pin count enables a new generation of small form factor computing devices
through smaller motherboards, while its speed capabilities reduce bottlenecks
typically associated with current PCI and AGP solutions.
"As enterprise servers and clients migrate to increasingly faster Ethernet
speeds, PCI Express allows the LAN connection architecture to scale with the
end-users' throughput requirements. The BCM5721, BCM5751 and BCM5751M are the
industry's first and only Gigabit Ethernet controllers designed specifically
to address the needs of today's high-performance computing platforms," said
Thomas Lagatta, group vice president for Broadcom's Enterprise Computing
Group. "Based on our SerDes expertise and six prior generations of field-
proven NetXtreme technology, this new family of GbE controllers is the most
advanced GbE solution in the market today."
"Gigabit Ethernet has become the mainstream LAN technology used throughout
the
business world today," said Sean Lavey, semiconductor program manager for IDC.
"We expect the support for PCI Express within GbE controllers will accelerate
this adoption as it enables new types of PC and server form factors while
dramatically increasing network performance."
The BCM5721 For High Performance Servers
Broadcom's new NetXtreme BCM5721 GbE controller is targeted at server
platforms. Combining innovative performance enhancements with a PCI Express 1x
host interface, the BCM5721 enables 2 Gb per second throughput for the most
demanding server applications. To reduce the total cost of server ownership,
the BCM5721 supports the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) 1.5
manageability standard that allows servers to be remotely managed. The BCM5721
also incorporates the industry's most advanced server software (the Broadcom
Advanced Server Program or BASP) which offers several innovative teaming
functions not available from any other GbE controller solution.
The BCM5751 For Desktop And Workstation PCs
Broadcom's BCM5751 is designed for use with desktop and workstation PCs and
has been optimized to provide the industry's best price and performance
combination. The BCM5751 provides significant advances in client manageability
by adding support for the Alerting Standards Forum (ASF) 2.0 specification.
This provides IT professionals with automatic alerts when support issues occur
and allows them to remotely address these concerns.
The BCM5751M for Mobile PCs
Broadcom's BCM5751M GbE controller has been optimized for the tight space
constraints of mobile PCs, enabling the industry's smallest footprint. In
addition, the BCM5751M can sense how the mobile PC is being utilized and will
reduce the power down to the lowest level necessary for that usage. Whether
docked or mobile, transmitting data or not, the BCM5751M's advanced power
management logic provides six power-down modes to always use the lowest power
possible, extending battery life. Through an integrated Trusted Platform
Module (TPM), the BCM5751M also includes support for the Trusted Computing
Group 1.1b specification, offering security features and strong authentication
to protect corporate information from attack.
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