About the White Paper:
An issue with IP storage networking is that TCP/IP protocol utilizes a significant portion of the host processor’ resources and that TCP is a slow protocol for storage functions. For IP-based storage to be widely adopted, TCP processing must be offloaded to host bus adapters and/or network interface cards. IP-based storage will require placing the TCP/IP and iSCSI data movement in hardware exactly as Alacritech’ patented SLIC Technology®does today. Alacritech’ innovative data-path TCP offload capability using the company’ SLIC Technology is designed to enhance system performance as well as dramatically reduce system processor overhead. Alacritech single- and multi-port Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet server and storage accelerator cards use the Internet Protocol Processor, an Alacritech-developed ASIC. This programmable ASIC is designed to effectively offload TCP and packet processing from host software to silicon on the adapter, reducing host CPU utilization, increasing data throughput and decreasing network latency. Alacritech has introduced the industry’ first dual-purpose Gigabit Ethernet accelerator, or the first Integrated Storage Network Interface Card (IS-NIC), a universal accelerator to act as a single interface for both IP storage traffic and standard Ethernet/IP networking functions with TCP offload capability. |
