The HP NC373T is a high performance PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet multifunction network adapter for either standard or low profile (half height) slots in ProLiant servers running in a twisted pair (copper) network environment.

In addition to delivering standard Gigabit Ethernet networking, the NC373T supports TOE (TCP/IP Offload Engine) for Windows only, Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), and RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) over a single network connection making it a multifunction Ethernet server adapter.

Besides its multifunction capabilities, the NC373T ships with all the advanced server features that ProLiant customers have come to expect, such as support for failover and load balancing, Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE), large send offload capability, multiple VLAN tagging, and auto-negotiated 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet speeds.

What's new

Because the NC373T supports multiple functions, it can assume any of three defined roles for ProLiant servers connected to a network:

– As a TOE device for Windows only, the NC373T shifts processing of the communications protocol stack (TCP/IP) from the server CPU to the network adapter, thereby freeing CPU cycles for other duties. With TOE, server efficiency is increased.
– As an iSCSI HBA, the NC373T combines two well-known technologies, SCSI and Ethernet, to provide HP ProLiant servers ready access to storage boxes over the same Ethernet wire used for networking. iSCSI enables the NC373T to function as both a NIC and an HBA from a single connection. This capability is valuable when you want to consolidate resources and simplify your infrastructure with a single I/O device.
– As a high-speed, low-latency multifunction network adapter, the NC373T provides the fastest communication between two RDMA-capable systems by providing direct memory to memory communications between servers with minimal CPU overhead.

Ideal environment

Ideal for...

Resource-constrained customers wanting greater server efficiencies

– The NC373T increases the efficient use of TCP offload resources, making sure that the connections dynamically move between host and NIC, depending upon workload
– With TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) for Windows only, the NC373T reduces the CPU cycles required to process incoming network traffic in Windows environments
– By using Receive Side Scaling in multiple CPU systems, network traffic is no longer bottlenecked because the NC373T supports dynamic load balancing of incoming traffic across CPUs

Corporate data centers looking to simplify their operations

– When the NC373T is deployed as an iSCSI initiator, it functions as an HBA with accelerated performance for access to individual storage devices and SANs
– The flexibility of the NC373T enables users to simplify their management operations by having a single I/O device provide both networking and storage needs
– By providing unified networking and storage connections, the NC373T enables the deployment of a single fabric environment

Enterprise customers requiring the highest in performance networking

– Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) functionality is a high speed, low latency protocol supported as an add-on capability to the NC373T for direct memory to memory transfer of data
– Applications currently constrained by memory, CPU, or networking throughput will gain the most from RDMA-enabled NC373T because it makes application scaling a reality
– Clustered servers will benefit from the optimized performance of RDMA when the NC373T is used as a cluster interconnect.