Intel announces iSCSI network interface card

Intel recently announced that it is manufacturing a SCSI-over-IP (iSCSI) host bus adapter card that one analyst said will go a long way toward building industry-wide momentum behind less expensive and more easily managed storage-area networks (SAN).

The host bus adapter, an I/O adapter that normally rests between the host computer's bus and a Fibre Channel loop, manages the transfer of information between two channels. The Intel PRO/1000T IP Storage Adapter rests between the host and a Gigabit Ethernet loop, freeing up server CPU cycles by taking over the TCP/IP stack processing for the server.

"This is just a foundation for the market. Products and customers are going to start testing them out. I think it's a good time to introduce this, and it's an important move," said Jamie Gruener, an analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston. "And it's significant in that it's Intel."

During initial tests of the iSCSI adapter card, throughput on a SAN set up by Intel was measured at 300 to 700Mbps, using only 3 to 5 per cent server processor capacity. That compared with a typical Ethernet adapter with a Pentium III chip, which used 100 per cent of a server's CPU capacity.

The only caveat is that there are few target devices with which the host bus adapter can currently interact because iSCSI remains in the early deployment stage. IBM last year released an iSCSI RAID storage device, and Cisco Systems began shipping an iSCSI router.

The Internet Engineering Task Force is expected to come out with an iSCSI specification and protocol by June.

"We do see iSCSI in this stage as a workgroup or departmental-type solution right now," said Blaine Kohl, Intel's director of marketing for high-end servers at Intel's LAN Access Division.

Alacritech in San Jose announced last week that it too had created an "integrated storage" network interface card that it used in its Gigabit Ethernet server.

Paul Mattson, manager for IP SAN at IBM Storage Systems Group and co-chairman of the Storage Networking Industry Association's IP Storage Forum, said, "We expect customers that combine the power of the IBM TotalStorage 200i and Intel's new adapter to realise significantly reduced processor utilisation."

The storage adapter has been released to manufacturing and will be available next month for the suggested list price of $US695, or $3125 for a pack of five, Kohl said.