June 10, 2008 -- 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) silicon provider Solarflare Communications recently announced Broadband-Testing's performance findings of Solarflare's Solarstorm SFC4000E vNIC 10-GbE controller. One of Europe's primary independent network testing facilities and consultancy organizations, Broadband-Testing says it conducted several intensive real-world tests to ensure that Solarflare's controller yields optimal performance while maintaining reliability.
According to Broadband-Testing, data collected across several configurations and scenarios revealed that the Solarstorm 10-GbE controller achieves line-rate in a variety of server operating systems, including Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Redhat Enterprise Linux. Once line-rate was achieved and maintained, ample processing resources remained on the server, meaning the controller sustained 10-Gigabit speeds without depleting server resources available for application processing. The controller also performed at line-rate speeds in virtualized environments with both VMware and Xen, surpassing previously-published performance figures. Lastly, the controller yielded a 300 percent improvement in iSCSI environments, with data digest enabled.
"Utilizing our extensive test facilities, we were able to measure just how efficiently Solarstorm addresses the market demands faced by data centers today," comments Steve Broadhead, founder and director of Broadband-Testing Labs. "The tests conclude that the Solarstorm controller provides industry-leading performance in a wide-variety of real-world application environments. Now IT managers looking to adopt 10 GbE have data-driven results, proving Solarstorm delivers cost-effective, high-performing technology to sustain a rich mix of contemporary applications."
"IT and data center managers need line-rate 10-GbE to address the increasing number of virtualized applications consolidated on a smaller number of servers," adds Bruce Tolley, vice president of marketing at Solarflare. "The results from Broadband-Testing confirm that our 10-GbE technology performs at levels demanded by our customers. We're pleased with the outcome, because it further supports our push to drive the widespread adoption of 10-GbE."
The testing on Solarflare's Solarstorm controller occurred in April 2008. For additional information from the full Broadband-Testing report, click here.