Competitive Comparison: Intel I/O Acceleration Technology vs. TCP Offload Engine

A Platform Solution

System I/O throughput challenges are not isolated to the network

connection. They’re present throughout the platform. TOE focuses on

only the network connection by offloading TCP/IP processing to silicon

on the network interface card (NIC). Intel I/OAT uses a platform-wide

approach, integrating processor, chipset, and OS enhancements,

significantly improving data movement through the platform.

CPU

memory

NIC NIC

Chipset

2 KB 4 KB 8 KB 16 KB 32 KB 64 KB

Application I/O Sizes

CPU Utilization (%)

TCP/IP Processing

Data Copies

System Overhead

Component Cycles/

Overheads Instruction

Interrupts Very High

Indicate signaling High

Completion signaling High

Data copies Very High

TCP processing Low

TCP classification Low

System overhead components

and impact on the CPU

Server platform block diagram