Neterion mitigates the task interrupt problem using the more flexible MSI-X (eXtended Message Signaled Interrupts), an industry standard, PCI-compliant interrupt mechanism within Xframe.

To continue the previous metaphor, the MSI-X approach is like sounding a bell that only your supervisor can hear, letting other people continue their business undisturbed.

You may also be interested to know that Neterion is not the only vendor getting ready for a completely virtualized datacenter. I've written about at least one other storage vendor, Emulex, that's walking on that same path (http://weblog.infoworld.com/thestoragenetwork/archives/005568.html).

However, to get the full picture of what's happening in this area, you should also know that there is a technical working group (http://www.pcisig.com/events/iovinteractive_042706) inside the PCI-SIG (http://www.pcisig.com/home) that is amending the PCI specification to enable virtualization.

Unless you're a member, navigating the PCI-SIG site won't get you very far. But according to Neterion, the workgroup is made up of major industry players including AMD, ATI, Broadcom, Emulex, HP, IBM, IDT, Intel, LSI Logic, Microsoft, Neterion, NextIO, Nvidia, PLX, QLogic, Stargen, Sun, and VMware.