The BCM5709 is part of the NetXtreme II™ family of C-NICs converged network interface controllers. By delivering 2.5 Gigabit networking throughput with convergence technology designed to boost server performance (i.e. TCP/IP offload engine, iSCSI, and Remote Direct Memory Access), Broadcom's BCM5709 is able to more than double the throughput of standard Gigabit networking while decreasing overall CPU utilization by up to 5 times. Designed as a cost-point replacement to existing 1GbE implementations, the 2.5 Gigabit Broadcom® NetXtreme II C-NIC is optimized for embedded blade server applications.
This release of the Broadcom BCM5709 is a controller card configured for the PowerEdge M1000e chassis and blade servers. Driver release version 12.4.0 will also be available to customers with the launch of this card. For controller management and to enable secondary features (iSCSI Boot, TOE, etc.), the BACS 3 suite is used.