Allied Telesis AT-2973T/4, AT-2973SX manual Functional Descriptions

Chapter 1: Introducing the AT-2973SX, AT-2973T, and AT-2973T/4 Adapters

Functional Descriptions

The AT-2973SX, AT-2973T, and AT-2973T/4 Broadcom NetXtreme II adapters are a new class of Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) converged network interface controller (C-NIC) that can simultaneously perform accelerated data networking and storage networking on a standard Ethernet network. The C-NIC offers acceleration for all popular protocols used in the data center, such as:

TCP Offload Engine (TOE) for accelerating TCP

Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) offload for accelerating network storage access featuring centralized boot functionality (iSCSI boot)

Enterprise networks that use multiple protocols and multiple network fabrics benefit from the C-NICs ability to combine data communications, storage, and clustering over a single Ethernet fabric by boosting server CPU processing performance and memory utilization while alleviating I/O bottlenecks.

The AT-2973SX adapter is set to a speed of 1000 Mbps in full duplex mode automatically. You cannot change the speed or duplex mode of this adapter.

The AT-2973T and AT-2973T/4 adapters include a 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet MAC with both half-duplex and full-duplex capability and a 10/ 100/1000-Mbps PHY. The transceiver is fully compatible with the IEEE 802.3 standard for auto-negotiation of speed.

As part of the company’s green range, all of three adapters are engineered to reduce power consumption. They incorporate centralized power management features that automatically place idle circuitry into a lower power mode to save energy.

The following sections provide functional descriptions of the AT-2973SX,

AT-2973T, and AT-2973T/4 adapters:

“AT-2973SX Adapter” on page 17

“AT-2973T Adapter” on page 18

“AT-2973T/4 Adapter” on page 20

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