Supported Operating Environments
Network Link and Activity Indication
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapters connect a PCI, PCI-X (BCM5701 and BCM5703), or PCI Express™ (BCM5751, BCM5721, and BCM5722) compliant system to a Gigabit Ethernet network. The BCM5714 provides an independent PCI-X bus for peripheral connectivity. Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapters incorporate a technology that transfers data at a maximum rate of 1 gigabit per second10 times the rate of Fast Ethernet adapters.
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapters target the increased congestion experienced at the backbone and system in today's networks and provide a future upgrade path for systems that require more bandwidth than Fast Ethernet can provide.
Using the Broadcom teaming software, you can split your network into virtual LANs (VLANs) as well as group multiple network adapters together into teams to provide network load balancing and fault tolerance functionality. See Teaming and Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Teaming Services for detailed information about teaming. See Virtual LANs for a description of VLANs. See Configuring Teaming for instructions on configuring teaming and creating VLANs on Windows and NetWare operating systems.
The following is a list of the Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapter features for all supported operating systems:
Wake on LAN (Magic Packet, Wake Up Frame, specific pattern) is supported at 10/100 Mbps operation only.
NOTES:
The adapter driver intelligently adjusts host interrupt frequency based on traffic conditions, to increase overall application throughput. When traffic is light, the adapter driver interrupts the host for each received packet, minimizing latency. When traffic is heavy, the adapter issues one host interrupt for multiple, back-to-back incoming packets, preserving host CPU cycles.
The PCI interface on Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapters contains two independent DMA channels for simultaneous read and write operations.
Compliant with PCI Local Bus Rev 2.3, the PCI interface on Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapters is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit PCI buses. As a bus master, the adapter requests access to the PCI bus, instead of waiting to be polled.
The core control for Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapters resides in a tightly integrated, high-performance ASIC. The ASIC includes a RISC processor. This functionality provides the flexibility to add new features to the card and adapts it to future network requirements through software downloads. This functionality also enables the adapter drivers to exploit the built-in host offload functions on the adapter as host operating systems are enhanced to take advantage of these functions.
Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 3 (BACS 3), a component of the Broadcom teaming software, is an integrated utility that provides useful information about each network adapter that is installed in your system. The BACS 3 utility also enables you to perform detailed tests, diagnostics, and analyses on each adapter, as well as to modify property values and view traffic statistics for each adapter. BACS 3 is used on Windows operating systems to configure teaming and to add VLANs. See Using Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 3 for detailed information and instructions.
The Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet adapter has software support for the following operating systems:
For copper-wire Ethernet connections, the state of the network link and activity is indicated by the LEDs on the RJ-45 connector, as described in Table 1: "Network Link and Activity Indicated by RJ-45 Port LEDs". Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 3 also provides information about the status of the network link and activity.