Aquantia showcases first practical dual-port 10GBASE-T NIC at IDF

Reference design enables deployment of PCIe Gen2 dual-port NICs in mainstream applications: Aquantia today announced that it will showcase the world's first dual-port 10GBASE-T network interface card (NIC) that meets equipment vendor power requirements at the Intel Developer Conference, which is being held in San Francisco's Moscone Center on Aug. 19-21. Working within the constraints of the low-profile PCIe card, the new NIC uses Aquantia's AQ1001 10GBASE-T PHY in conjunction with Intel's 82598 10-Gigabit Ethernet controller. It serves as a reference design which can be leveraged by controller suppliers and OEM adapter card suppliers to ship dual-port 10GBASE-T NICs and HBAs based on Aquantia's low-power PHY. "Twisted pair copper interconnect is critical for volume deployment of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and end-customers are demanding NICs which support dual ports." said Phil Delansay, president and CEO of Aquantia. "We are proud to demonstrate the first viable 10GBASE-T dual-port NIC, and look forward to supporting the development of NICs for the upcoming generation of PCIe Gen2 servers which fully exploit the available bandwidth." "Currently available 10GBASE-T PHY multi-chip silicon from our competition does not permit deployment of dual-port NICs due to their high power, in excess of 10W/port." Mr. Delansay added "Aquantia's low-power AQ1001 enables dual-port NICs with a proven 90nm design."