Installation guide

Alacritech Accelerator Users Guide: Microsoft Windows Edition 1-1

1 Introduction

This guide describes how to install Release 10 software and operate Alacritech Acce-

lerators under the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems.

1.1 Description

Alacritech Scalable Network Accelerators™ (SNAs) are single-port or multi-port net-

work interface cards (NICs) that employ Alacritech‟s Dynamic TCP Offload technology,

which uses an innovative application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for protocol

processing. Accelerators operate with Microsoft TCP Chimney on Microsoft Windows

XP Professional x64, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server

2008. The Scalable Network Pack (SNP) from Microsoft is required when using Micro-

soft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.

The Dynamic TCP Offload increases server performance and efficiency in two specific

ways:

 TCP/IP Protocol processing is offloaded onto the Accelerator, freeing the CPU

for application processing and maximizing throughput

 A unique ASIC utilizes an Internet Protocol Processor (IPP), optimized for

TCP/IP protocol processing, which delivers faster performance than general

purpose CPUs

Dynamic TCP Offload eliminates the burden of TCP/IP protocol processing on the host

CPU. With protocol processing offloaded onto the Accelerator, the CPU is freed for

application processing, boosting both network and server performance.

1.2 Changes from Release 9

Release 10 has broadened the range of operating systems and applications supported

by the 1800 and SES Accelerators.

In previous releases, the 1800 series supported only the Standard edition of Microsoft

Windows Server. With Release 10, the 1800 models support all the same editions as

the 2000 series. See Section 1.4 for a full list of supported operating systems.

Also, the SES Accelerators only offloaded iSCSI traffic in Release 9 (and earlier). Traf-

fic not using TCP port 3260

would not benefit from performance gains provided by

Dynamic TCP Offload and TCP Chimney. With Release 10, the SES models support

offload on all TCP ports.

Note: The 1800 and SES models were discontinued by Alacritech in November

2008. Though no longer for sale, these models are still fully supported by

Release 10 and have had their functionality expanded, as noted above.

Port 3260 is the default port designated for iSCSI, as defined in RFC 3720: Internet Small

Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI).