3Com 10/100/1000 PCI-X Server NIC

The 3Com 10/100/1000 PCI-X Server Network Interface Card (3C996-T) provides super fast Gigabit Ethernet technology for PC-servers. Today's applications demand high throughput from the server connections, and the 3C996-T delivers up to ten-fold increase in performance over existing Fast Ethernet. Upgrading a Fast Ethernet connection to Gigabit Ethernet requires no new wiring because the 10/100/1000 Server NIC runs over Industry standard Category 5 copper cable. Designed and built for high performance, high availability, mission critical server connections, the 10/100/1000 Server NIC comes standard with advanced server features that provide switch-independent transmit/receive traffic load balancing across multiple NICs and switches, Failover and failback support from primary NIC to secondary NICs. Load balancing and failover support to include third party NICs and LOMs, and VLAN tagging and traffic prioritization support.

This 32/64-bit, 66MHz PCI-X NIC with advanced server features provides network throughput and low CPU utilization for high-end enterprise servers, midrange branch-office servers, and low-end volume servers. Regardless of the type of server, the 3C996-T can bring the fastest possible Ethernet LAN connection technology to the business, thereby increasing Local Area Network performance as well as Wide Area Network performance such as Internet and e-business transactions. 3C996-T provides all these performance improvements while reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in terms of ease of use and network manageability.

Product Features:
- 10/100/1000 Auto-negotiation
- Universal PCI v2.2 32/64-bit, 33/66MHz and PCI-X v1.0 32/64-bit, 66MHz bus interface
- RJ-45 UTP connector for industry standard Category 5 copper cable
- 96KB Frame Buffer (built into ASIC)
- Hardware off-load for TCP/IP/UDP checksum
- Hardware off-load for TCP Segmentation
- 9 KB Jumbo Frames support
- PXE 2.0 Support
- 802.3x Flow Control
- Link Aggregation 802.3ad
- VLAN Tagging 802.3q
- Traffic Prioritization 802.3p
- Switch-Independent Bi-directional Load Balancing
- Switch Dependent Load Balancing
- Fast EtherChannel and Gigabit EtherChannel Support

Advanced Server Features (Features provided on the CD)

Switch-Independent Load Balancing:
- Supports Bi-directional Load Balancing on ANY vendor's standards-based switch (also referred to as Switch Independent)
- Bi-directional Load Balancing Provide scalability of performance through multiple NICs - supports up to eight NICs.
- Provides standards-based transmit and receive load balancing
- Requires no switch configuration
- Fast EtherChannel and Gigabit EtherChannel
- Link Aggregation IEEE 802.3ad compliant switch

Failover Capability provides fault tolerant connections from the server to the network. If a link connection fails, the failover capability automatically activates a failover event to enable the remaining NICs/LOMs in a group to assume the network operation of the failed connection.

PCI Hot-Plug capabilities reduces total cost of ownership by allowing IS managers to add and remove NICs without bringing the server down. supports IBM, Compaq, and Microsoft mechanisms.

Traffic Prioritization (IEEE 802.1p) facilitates the convergence of voice, video, and data communications on the same network by ensuring that business-critical and delay sensitive traffic has priority.

Multiple VLAN Support (IEEE 802.1Q) increases network performance and security by eliminating router bottlenecks and segregating network users to minimize security breaches. Supports up to 64 VLANS.