Exablaze ExaNIC X2 Sub-Micro Latency Dual-Port 10GbE Network Interface Card
ULTRA LOW LATENCY NETWORK INTERFACE CARD
[ExaNICX2]
Details
ULTRA LOW LATENCY NETWORK INTERFACE CARD
The ExaNIC is a 10Gbps PCI Express network card interface card specifically optimized for low latency environments.
While initially conceived and built for use in latency-sensitive financial applications such as high frequency trading, the ExaNIC has appeal that extends to any environment where latency is key.
INDUSTRY-LEADING LATENCY
Designed from the ground up to minimize latency, the ExaNIC delivers record-breaking performance numbers.
On our Intel Sandy Bridge test system, latency from application to network to application is under a microsecond for small packets, which is significantly better than competing network cards on the same hardware. UDP and TCP latencies are as low as 1.1 microseconds for small payloads.
EASY TO USE
In addition to a standard Linux driver, a transparent TCP and UDP acceleration library is included, as well as a library for low-level access.
A transparent socket acceleration library allows applications to benefit from the low latency of kernel bypass, in most cases without modifications to the applications. For the most latency sensitive applications, a library called ‘libexanic’ allows direct low-level access to the ExaNIC hardware and includes simple functions for sending and receiving Ethernet frames. With the optional firmware development kit, it is even possible to extend the ExaNIC firmware and add your own logic to the onboard FPGA.
ADVANCED CAPTURE AND TIMESTAMPING
Flow steering delivers packets to the right application’s receive buffer, while flow hashing distributes packets across multiple CPU cores for demanding capture applications. Built-in timestamping functionality records each frame’s arrival time to a granularity of 6.2ns.
These timestamps are available through the API and through a capture utility which can write tcpdump-compatible capture files. Additionally, the ExaNIC has a Pulse-Per-Second (PPS) input which can be used to synchronize the ExaNIC clock with a PPS source such as a GPS receiver, allowing users to meaningfully compare captured timestamps across multiple servers and geographic locations.
BUILT–IN BRIDGING AND PORT MIRRORING
The ExaNIC includes integrated support for bridging, which can further reduce latency by hundreds of nanoseconds, as well as port mirroring, which enhances network visibility.
Normally sharing an upstream connection between multiple servers would necessitate introducing a switch. The bridging feature allows the most latency critical server to be directly connected to the upstream connection. Packets not destined for the local server can be bridged to a second port, transparently and with low latency. This port could be connected to a backup server or to a downstream switch. The ExaNIC also has a port mirroring feature which allows incoming and/or outgoing packets to be replicated to a monitor port - for logging, audit, debugging or latency analysis - with no performance overhead and without requiring physical reconfiguration of the network. An external power input can be used to guarantee that the bridging and port mirroring features continue to operate even if host power is lost.
| Manufacturer | exablaze |
|---|---|
| Part No. | ExaNICX2 |
| End of Life? | No |
| Bandwidth | 10GbE; 1GbE |
| Bridging | Optional forwarding between ports 1 and 2, latency <170ns |
| Host OS Support | Linux x86_64 (all distros) |
| PCI Slot(s) | LP HH PCIe x8 Gen 2.0 @ 5.0 GT/s per lane |
| Ports | 2 SFP+, PPS and power |
| Port-Port Latency | 60 bytes: 950ns - 300 bytes: 1.2μs |