The new TCP/IP protocol structure promotes the development of 10-Gigabit Networks

Microsoft announced that it will support the new TCP/IP architecture called TCP/IP offload in the Windows Server operating system starting next year. At the same time, Intel announced that it would lower the price and release a 10G Ethernet server NIC that supports multimode optical fiber.
All of these will greatly promote the convergence of networks. The storage and cluster functions are embodied in the data center through 10G Ethernet. This indicates that the application of 10-ge Ethernet in data centers will be greatly improved.

At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference held on April 9, May 4, Microsoft announced that it would support the TCP/IP unmount function in the New TCP/IP stack called Chimney on the new Windows Server operating system. Chimney's IPv4 Beta version will be released in the second half of this year, and the official product will be released early next year. It also supports the load balancing function.

The TCP/IP uninstall Technology covers multiple sets of network communication protocols required for data transmission. It can distribute these transmission functions from the main processor to other processors to achieve full speed (wire-speed) performance, reduce power requirements, and let the main processor focus on implementing other application functions for the platform, and a speed of 10 Gbps or even higher. TCP/IP uninstall technology is expected to provide higher efficiency and lower power consumption rate than traditional solutions. The TCP/IP unmount function has not been fully accepted by server vendors, in part because it requires additional hardware support. The chip manufacturing plant Alacritech said that most of its products are currently purchased by storage equipment manufacturers.

Chimney is a product of cooperation between Microsoft and OEM partners. It will be widely used in the next-generation data center network. This era is coming soon. Later versions of Chimney will support remote Direct Memory Access, which will reduce the latency produced by Ethernet when transmitting large data volumes. Microsoft announced the details of the IPv6 implementation version of the Chimney architecture last year, but did not announce the time to integrate it into Windows.

Chip manufacturers Alacritech and Broadcom also announced that a new Ethernet controller will be released in future Windows systems. Chip manufacturers develop TCP/IP Offload functions in dedicated chips, which will greatly threaten the fate of dedicated chips that can be connected by inserting multiple Gigabit NICs on the server. However, chip manufacturers must develop at a relatively high level without operating system support.

Alacritech soon accepted the Chimney system architecture, announcing its fourth generation of chip STA-2000 supporting TCP/IP uninstallation. It will support Microsoft's new architecture. The STA-2000 is a dual-channel Gigabit Ethernet controller that uses a 13 m PCI-X bus and supports CRC redundancy verification. This chip will improve the Ethernet efficiency by 25% on eight servers.

Broadcom announced that it will support Microsoft's Chimney system, TCP/IP unmount, and new features such as storage networks and clusters in its Ethernet product. Both Alacritech and Broadcom claim that their products supporting the PCI Express interface will be available early next year, the 10G Ethernet chip for optical fiber and copper wires supporting TCP/IP uninstallation will also be available within a year and a half.

Analysts said it would take several years for chip manufacturers to determine all the details about how they can accelerate TCP/IP uninstallation.

At the same time, Intel released its 10 Gbit/s server NIC-PRO/10GbE SR, which uses XPAK connector to connect to multimode optical fiber. It works at a distance of 300 meters. At the end of the summer, Intel will also release its PRO/10GbE LR network card working on a single-mode optical fiber, with a transmission distance of 10 kilometers. Hans Geyer, manager of Intel's network and storage department, said: "With the gigabit network to desktop popularity, 10G Ethernet will soon occupy the data center market and become the standard configuration of servers, the price is constantly adjusted."

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