10GigEthr-02 (iexgbe) B.11.31.1301 Ethernet Driver Release Notes (March 2013 Update, Edition 4)

Flex-10 HP Flex-10 allows each 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter to be configured by
HP-UX as eight LAN devices. Each port in a dual-ported mezzanine or LOM
represents a single, wired connection to network hardware as follows:
• In a Blade Virtual Connect environment, the NIC is configured in
Flex-10 mode. Each port is logically divided into up to four individual
network devices which share the total bandwidth of the network
connection. For more information about HP Virtual Connect, see http://
h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/virtualconnect/index.html.
• In other environments, the NIC is configured as a single network device
per port.
Function A PCIe function. Each function can be configured by HP-UX as a single
device. In a Flex-10 environment, HP-UX can configure a dual-ported NIC
with up to 8 PCIe functions (up to four per port).
LOM LAN on motherboard. A chip or chipset capable of network connections
that has been embedded directly on the motherboard of a server. For
example, server blades include LOMs that are dual-port 1 or 10 Gigabit
Ethernet interfaces.
mezzanine card Also known as a daughterboard or daughtercard. Plugs directly into the
motherboard or another plug-in card to extend functionality. It usually fits
on top of and parallel to the board or card it plugs into.
NIC Network Interface Card. A function or device that is configured as a network
or LAN device.
PCIe Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. A computer expansion bus
standard that replaces older (such as PCI) bus standards to improvements
such as a higher maximum system bus throughput, a smaller physical
footprint, better performance scaling for bus devices, more detailed error
detection and reporting, and native hot-plug functionality. More recent
revisions of the PCIe standard support hardware I/O virtualization.
Port The physical connection to the network. The NIC typically has two physical
connections; this configuration is often described as “dual-ported.”
1.2 Features
The iexgbe driver is a PCIe 10 Gigabit Ethernet driver that can support the standup, mezzanine,
and LAN on motherboard (LOM) technologies for a variety of platforms. It supports the HP Virtual
Connect Flex-10 interface on server blade platforms. Before HP Virtual Connect was introduced,
only two interconnect choices were available for connecting server blades to a network —
passthrough devices and switches. Passthrough devices are simple but require too many cumbersome
cables and create complexity. Blade switches reduce the number of cables but add more
management responsibilities for LAN and SAN administrators. In both cases, multiple people are
needed to perform very simple server tasks. Only HP offers the third choice — HP Virtual Connect
— which reduces cables without adding switches to manage and provides many other advantages.
For more information about HP Virtual Connect, see the following website:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/virtualconnect/index.html
Other notable features provided by the iexgbe driver include:
• Transmit Checksum Offload (CKO) and TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO) for IPv4
• Receive CKO for IPv4
• Flex-10 bandwidth allocation
• Multiple receive queues
• Receive Side Scaling (RSS) with TCP and UDP
4