Broadcom's new chip can be used for 10-Gigabit Ethernet, NAS (network-attached storage) and iSCSI as well as FCoE and offloads TCP/IP processing from the server, Broadcom's Tagizad said. It has even been available in volume from Broadcom since January and been shipping since March in the Dell Broadcom 57712-k Converged Network Daughter Card, he said. That card has been sold as "FCoE ready," but starting this month, users of the card will be able to download the software to give it FCoE capability. The 57712-k costs US$499, with no premium for FCoE.

The chip is also coming to market this month in the Cisco 10-Gigabit Ethernet BCM57712 Network Adapter. Both the Cisco and Dell products will work with Windows and Linux immediately and will support VMware with an upcoming release of VSphere in the near future, Tagizad said. The cards have been qualified to work with Cisco's UCS C-Series blade servers and Dell's PowerEdge M710HD and M915 servers, along with Cisco, Dell and Brocade switches and a variety of EMC storage systems. The Clariion AX4 and CX, the Celerra NS and the VNX platforms are included.

The IDG News Service