IBM is bringing Neterion Inc.s 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology to its xSeries servers.
The two companies announced Monday that IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., will deploy Neterions Xframe II Ethernet adapters in its x366, 260 and 460 servers.
“This is the beginning of something very big, a move to 10G,” said Tom Bradicich, chief technology officer for IBMs xSeries Division and BladeCenter unit.
Bradicich said the combination of 10GE technology, PCI-X 2.0 and IBMs X3 Architecture—designed to improve the performance of the vendors Intel Corp.-based servers—will give customers additional options for server consolidation and virtualization in their data centers.
IBM systems support other high-speed interconnects, including InfiniBand, but Bradicich pointed to “pent-up demand” for 10GE, particularly given the ubiquitous use of Ethernet in most data centers.
This is the first step for IBM, he said. Initially the company will bring 10GE to the systems through the adapter cards. Within 18 months, the technology will start being embedded on the motherboard, he said.
Dave Zambrowski, president and CEO of Neterion, said the Xframe cards can easily be deployed in an existing data center in a plug-and-play fashion, quickly improving bandwidth and performance.
Zambrowski said Neterion, of Cupertino, Calif., has been working with IBM for several years on its 10GE technology.