Acromag's New XMC modules interface 10-Gigabit Ethernet to PCI Express with ultra-fast TCP/IP offload engine

WIXOM, Mich., Jan. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Acromag's new XMC-6260 and XMC-6280 mezzanine modules provide a 10-gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) interface solution for data-intensive, real-time embedded computing systems. Ultra-high performance is achieved using a TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) ASIC connected to a PCI Express Gen2 x8 interface. The XMC-6260 has dual XAUI 10GBASE-KX4 ports and supports conduction-cooling or -40 to 85 degrees C operation. The XMC-6280 features four SFP+ ports for fiber or copper cables.  Applications include high-speed data storage, image collection/transfer, distributed control networks, and board-to-board interfaces. All versions are available with lead or lead-free solder starting at $2750.

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"With the adoption of 10GbE for video and other data sources, even the most powerful processors require help managing the data flow to prevent performance bottlenecks," explains Joseph Primeau, Acromag's embedded sales and marketing director. To solve this challenge, Acromag's network interface modules pair a purpose-built, multi-protocol processor with up to four channels of 10GbE connectivity. This solution offloads TCP overhead tasks from the host CPU to maintain maximum computing speeds.

To meet the needs of data-intensive real-time applications, these fully integrated network interface cards (NIC) employ the Chelsio^® T4 processor. This ASIC has four XGMAC (10GbE) interfaces and supports up to 1M connections. Five gigabits of DDR3 memory enhances the number of virtual connections. The T4 chip provides full offload support for TCP, UDP, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).  Other functions include high-performance packet switching, traffic filtering and management. By relieving the host CPU of these network processing tasks, very low Ethernet latency and high-level determinism are reliably achievable. Software drivers are available for Linux and Windows.

An 8-lane PCIe host interface provides a high-speed connection to the system processor. With support for 5Gbps data rates, the PCIe interface delivers up to 32Gbps of bandwidth to the server. This connection enables stateless offloads, packet filtering (firewall offload), and traffic shaping (media streaming).

Acromag's XMC-6260 and XMC-6280 modules provide a complete and flexible TCP offload solution. The TOE ASIC has hundreds of programmable registers for protocol configuration and offload control. As a result, these modules can offload TCP processing per connection, per server, per interface. They can also globally and simultaneously tunnel traffic from non-offloaded connections to the host processor for the native TCP/IP stack to process. Additionally, the modules provides a flexible zero-copy capability for regular TCP connections, requiring no changes to the sender, to deliver line rate performance with minimal CPU usage.

These network interface cards can also provide powerful packet switching and routing capabilities. The cards integrate a high-performance packet switch, which allows switching of traffic from any of the input ports to any of the output ports (wire-to-wire), and from any of the output ports to any of the input ports (host-to-host).

About Acromag

Acromag has designed and manufactured measurement and control products for more than 55 years. With a headquarters near Detroit, Michigan and a global network of sales representatives and distributors, Acromag products are sold worldwide. They offer a complete line of industrial I/O products including process instruments, signal conditioning equipment, data acquisition boards, distributed I/O modules, and network communication devices. Industries served include manufacturing, water services, power generation, mining, defense, and transportation.

www.acromag.com

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SOURCE Acromag