10 Gigabit Performance at
the Lowest Cost Per Port
Adding to a robust family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters, Intel is
now offering the Intel® 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual Port Server Adapter.
Following the 802.ak specification, the Intel 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual
Port Server Adapter offers the lowest cost per port of all the
current 10GbE interconnects. The low-profile PCI Express* form
factor combined with two CX4 ports and a low-power envelope
for energy efficiency, makes the board ideal for slot-constrained
environments. 10GBASE-CX4 adapters are well-suited for
customers with shorter distance and low latency requirements.
Next-Generation 10 Gigabit Performance
10 Gigabit Ethernet has moved past the early adoption stage and
is rapidly becoming mainstay for backbones within enterprise and
service provider networks. The escalating deployments of servers
with multi-core processors and demanding applications such as
High Performance Computing (HPC), database clusters, and video
on demand are driving the need for 10 Gigabit connections.
Designed to meet the need of high-speed, low-latency intercon-
nects of HPC clusters, the Intel® 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual Port Server
Adapter provides bandwidth-intensive applications with highly
affordable 10GbE network performance for distances up to
15 meters with standard twinaxial or up to 100 meters with
Intel® Connects cable. Based on the Intel® 82598EB 10 Gigabit
Ethernet controller, Intel’s next-generation 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual
Port Server Adapter is designed to meet the throughput require-
ments of bandwidth-hungry applications. Intel’s new 10GBASE-
CX4 adapter can also be used in wiring closets and server racks,
as well as data centers to aggregate servers.
Performance-Enhancing Features
Designed for Multi-Core Environments
When implemented within multi-core processor environments,
the Intel 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual Port Server Adapter offers ad-
vanced networking features for efficient distribution of Ethernet
workloads across CPU cores. Load balancing of interrupts using
MSI-X enables more efficient response times and improved
application performance. CPU utilization can be lowered further
through stateless offloads such as TCP segmentation offload,
header replications/splitting, and Direct Cache Access (DCA).
Multiple Queues Optimized
for Virtual Environments
The Intel 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual Port Server Adapter is optimized
for virtualized environments, supporting multiple queues, allevi-
ating I/O bottlenecks between virtual machines. Virtual Machine
Device queue1 (VMDq) technology offloads data sorting and data
copying from the virtual machine monitor (VMM) software layer
to the hardware, improving overall throughput and CPU utilization
on virtualized servers. Additionally, the Intel 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual
Port Server Adapter enables Intel® I/O Acceleration Technology2
(Intel® I/OAT) with support for Intel® QuickData for faster I/O
processing on the new Quad-Core and Dual-Core Intel® Xeon®
processor-based servers.
Product Brief
Intel® 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual Port Server Adapter
Network Connectivity
Intel®
10 Gigabit CX4 Dual Port Server Adapter
Features Benefits
Intel® 82598EB 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller • Industry-leading, energy-efficient design for next-generation 10 Gigabit performance and
multi-core processors
Low profile • Enables higher bandwidth and throughput from standard and low-profile PCIe slots and servers
Load balancing on multiple CPUs • Increases performance on multi-processor systems by efficiently balancing network loads across
CPU cores when used with Receive-Side Scaling from Microsoft or Scalable I/O on Linux*
Intel® I/OAT2• Accelerates I/O with higher throughput and lower CPU utilization by offloading processing overhead
iSCSI remote boot support • Provides centralized storage area network (SAN) management at a lower cost than competing
iSCSI solutions
MSI-X support • Minimizes the overhead of interrupts
• Allows load balancing of interrupt handling between multiple cores/CPUs
Virtual Machine Device queues (VMDq) • Allows the efficient routing of packets to the correct target machine in a virtualized environment
using multiple hardware queues
• Ensures transmit fairness and prevents head-of-line blocking
Low latency • Ability to toggle between the interrupt aggregation and non-aggregation mode based on the
type of data being transferred
Optimized queues: 32 Transmit (Tx) and
64 Receive (Rx) per port
• Network packet handling without waiting or buffer overflow
• Efficient packet prioritization
Compatible with x8, and x16 standard and low-profile
PCI Express* slots
• Allows each PCI Express* slot port to operate without interfering with the other
Support for most Network Operating Systems (NOS) • Enables widespread deployment
• Supports up to 100m with Intel® Connects Cable
CX4 connections over 8 pair, 100 Ohm, Twinaxial cabling • Ensures compatibility with cable lengths up to 15m
• Supports up to 100m with Intel® Connects Cable
RoHS-compliant3• Compliant with the European Union directive 2002/95/EC to reduce the use of hazardous materials
Intel® PROSet Utility for Microsoft Windows*
Device Manager
• Provides point-and-click power over individual adapters, advanced adapter features, connection
teaming, and virtual local area network (VLAN) configuration
Intel backing • Backed by an Intel® limited lifetime warranty, 90-day money-back guarantee (U.S. and Canada), and
worldwide support
Conserve valuable PCI Express (PCIe*) server slots while adding
10 Gigabit Ethernet capability with the Intel 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual
Port Server Adapter. The dedicated input/output (I/O) bandwidth
of PCIe ensures priority performance on each port — without
bus sharing — for 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, as well as a
low-profile design, which improves server throughput and rack
density at the same time. In addition, eight-lane PCIe enables
maximum bandwidth for fast and efficient data transfer.
Advances for Unified Storage
The fast growth in storage capacity coupled with server virtual-
ization has brought the need for Storage Area Network (SAN) to
the forefront. To satisfy this growing demand, Intel’s 10 Gigabit
CX4 Dual Port Server adapters support iSCSI acceleration through
Intel I/OAT and provide advanced features for unified storage con-
nectivity. Fast and reliable networked storage can be achieved via
native iSCSI support with Microsoft, Linux*, and VMware operating
systems as well as support for iSCSI remote boot.
General
Product code EXPX9502CX4
Connectors CX4
Cabling 8 pair, 100 Ohm, twinaxial cable
Adapter Product Features
Intel® PROSet Utility for easy conguration
and management
•
Plug and play specication support Standard
Intel® I/OAT2 including QuickData •
Ships with full-height bracket installed,
low-prole bracket added in package
•
Cable Distance
8 pair, 100 Ohm, twinaxial cable 15m
Intel® Connects Cable 100m
Receive-side scaling •
VMDq1In a virtualized environment, packets
dedicated to different virtual machines
can be routed to different queues, thus
easing the routing of these packets to
the target machine
Advanced packet ltering (per port) • 16 exact-matched packets
(unicast or multicast)
• 4096-bit hash lter for
multicast frames
• Promiscuous (unicast and multicast)
transfer mode support
• Optional ltering of invalid frames
Direct Cache Access (DCA) The I/O device activates a pre-fetch
engine in the CPU that loads the data
into the CPU cache ahead of time,
before use, eliminating cache misses
and reducing CPU load
Network Management
DMI 2.0 support, Windows Management
Instrumentation (WMI) and SNMP
•
Remote Installation Services (RIS) •
PXE 2.0 enabled through boot Read-Only
Memory (ROM)
•
Network Operating Systems (NOS) Software Support
Windows Vista SP1* IA32, X64
Windows Server* 2003 SP2 IA32, X64, IPF
Windows Unied Storage Solution* 2003 IA32, X64, IPF
Windows Server* 2008 IA32, X64, IPF
Linux* Stable Kernel version 2.6 IA32, X64, IPF
Linux* RHEL 4 and RHEL 5 IA32, X64, IPF
Linux* SLES 9 and SLES 10 IA32, X64, IPF
FreeBSD* 7.0 IA32, X64, IPF
EFI* 1.1 IA32, X64, IPF
Intel Backing
Limited lifetime warranty •
90-day, money-back guarantee
(U.S. and Canada)
•
Advanced Software Features
Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT) •
Switch Fault Tolerance (SFT) •
Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) •
Teaming support •
IEEE 802.3ad4 (link aggregation
control protocol)
•
Test switch conguration Tested with major switch original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
PCIe Hot Plug*/Active Peripheral
Component Interconnect (PCI)
•
IEEE 802.1Q* VLANs •
IEEE 802.3 2005* ow control support •
Tx/Rx IP, TCP, & UDP checksum ofoading
(IPv4, IPv6) capabilities (Transmission control
protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP),
Internet Protocol (IP)
•
IEEE 802.1p* •
TCP segmentation/large send ofoad •
MSI-X supports Multiple Independent Queues •
Interrupt moderation •
IPv6 ofoading Checksum and segmentation capability
extended to new standard packet type
Technical Features
Data rate supported per port 10 Gigabit
Bus type PCI Express 2.0 (2.5 GT/s)
Bus width x8 lane PCI Express, operable in x8 and
x16 slots
Bus speed (x8, encoded rate) 20 Gbps uni-directional; 40 Gbps
bi-directional
Interrupt levels INTA, MSI, MSI-X
Hardware certications FCC B, UL, CE, VCCI, BSMI, CTICK, MIC
Controller-processor Intel® 82598EB
Typical power consumption 4.5 W (passive cables), 6.9 W
(active cables)
Operating temperature 0° C to 55° C (32° F to 131° F)
Storage temperature -40° C to 70° C (-40° F to 158° F)
Storage humidity 90% non-condensing relative humidity
at 35° C
LED Indicators LINK (solid) and ACTIVITY (blinking)
Physical Dimensions
Length 16.74 cm (6.59 in)
Width 6.89 cm (2.71 in)
Height of end bracket PCI Express standard, 12 cm
(4.725 in); PCI Express low-prole,
7.92 cm (3.12 in)
Specifications
1 Intel® VMDq requires an operating system that supports VMDq.
2 Intel® I/O Acceleration Technology (Intel® I/OAT) requires an operating system that supports Intel I/OAT.
3 Lead and other materials banned in RoHS Directive are either (1) below all applicable substance thresholds the EU or (2) an approved exemption applies.
4 Available only when used with a capable switch.
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To see the full line of Intel Network Adapters for PCI Express,
visit www.intel.com/network/connectivity
Order Codes
Single Unit: EXPX9502CX4
Companion Products
Consider these Intel products in your server and network planning:
• Intel® 10 Gigabit Server Adapters
– Copper or fiber-optic network connectivity, up to
two ports per card
• Intel® PRO/1000 Server Adapters
– Copper or fiber-optic network connectivity, up to
four ports per card
– Solutions for PCI Express, PCI-X,* and PCI interfaces
• Intel® PRO/1000 Desktop Adapters for PCI Express
and PCI interfaces
• Other Intel® PRO Desktop and Server Adapters
• Intel® Xeon® processors
• Intel® Server Boards
Network-Ready Servers
Top PC and server manufacturers offer Intel adapters in their
new products. Specify or ask for Intel Network Connections with
your next PC, server, or mobile PC purchase. For a list of preferred
suppliers, visit us at www.intel.com/buy/networking/adapters.htm.
Customer Support
Intel® Customer Support Services offers a broad selection of
programs including phone support and warranty service. For more
information, contact us at support.intel.com/support/go/network/
adapter/home.htm. Service and availability may vary by country.
For Product Information
To speak to a customer service representative regarding Intel
products, please call 1-800-538-3373 (U.S. and Canada) or
visit support.intel.com/support/go/network/contact.htm for
the telephone number in your area. For additional product
information on Intel Networking Connectivity products, visit
www.intel.com/network/connectivity.