User`s guide

2 007-5472-001
1: Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express Board Features and Capabilities
Note: On SGI Altix 450 or 4700 systems, if both ports are run concurrently, one of the
ports will have performance degraded by approximately 40 percent. The Broadcom 5715
GbE controller implementation of a PCIe to PCI bridge is only capable of 40-bit wide
addressing. Ports run individually achieve expected throughput of approximately 940
Mb/s.
Board Features
The Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board is available in two formats: the dual-port
Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet board and the dual-port Copper Gigabit Ethernet board.
These boards are described in the following sections:
• “Fiber-Optic Board Features” on page 2
• “Copper Board Features” on page 5
Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet is defined in the IEEE standard P802.3z. The Fiber-Optic
Gigabit Ethernet board is compatible with this approved standard. Copper Gigabit
Ethernet is defined in the IEEE standard P802.3ab. The Copper Gigabit Ethernet board is
compatible with this approved standard.
Fiber-Optic Board Features
The technical specifications for the Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board are
from a technical specification page available at:
http://www.silicom-usa.com/pgx.php?p2=175
The Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board includes these features:
• Host Interface standard support PCI Express 1.0a.
• High performance, reliability, and low power use in Broadcom 5714 / 5715 / 5704
dual integrated MAC + PHY / SERDES chip controller.
• Ultra deep packet buffer per channel lowers CPU utilization.
• Dual high speed RISC processor per channel for advanced packet classification.