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| | | | | AMD Development Boards and RDKs |
| | | | | | | General Product Information |
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PermaNet™ Servers
Fault tolerant links with port aggregation enhance network performance and improve network availability, scaleability and bandwidth
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Increasing server availability and throughput are two vital issues facing network managers, especially in mission critical enterprise client/server applications. These factors, combined with the increasing emphasis given to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a networked system, are very important issues that a network manager needs to address. Server downtime can disrupt mission-critical functions and halt business operations. The time associated with determining and correcting faults in the network results in significant costs. On the other hand, the increasing deployment of bandwidth hungry applications is driving the demand for increased throughput over a network. And the network systems that are deployed today need to be scaleable to accommodate increasing network traffic. Now, more than ever, there is a need for a reliable, fault-tolerant, standards-based solution to improve performance and reliability of the network.
AMD's PermaNet server technology brings an unprecedented level of fault tolerance, load balancing, and improved throughput to network servers by implementing port aggregation features. PermaNet server software, combined with AMDs' industry standard PCnet™ family of Ethernet Controllers, enhances the system performance, resiliency and throughput.
PermaNet server provides support for a vital secondary 10/100 Ethernet backup link on the most heavily used path in a network, the pipeline to the server. With PermaNet server, expensive corrective service is not required immediately to fix failed links. The HotPlug PCI feature gives network managers the unprecedented ability to swap out cards while the server is running, maintaining network operation. The HotPlug PCI feature eliminates network downtime and is an industry first.
In the unlikely event that the primary NIC fails, the secondary NIC automatically reestablishes the link. The backup link is automatically and transparently engaged, and maintains the connection without interrupting or corrupting the data transmission. When a failover event occurs, the link failure status is logged to alert the network administrator.
PermaNet failover feature can also be combined with load balancing and port aggregation to enhance the throughput of the network. Multiple physical pair of links can be aggregated as a logical interface to improve the effective bandwidth and throughput of a network. This feature also provides a scaleable connection that can be used to satisfy the ever-increasing bandwidth requirement of a network backbone.
AMD has also incorporated Cisco's Fast EtherChannel load balancing and link aggregation technology to enhance the software support for the PCnet family of Ethernet Controllers. Fast EtherChannel technology augments standards-based 802.3 Fast Ethernet and provides a reliable high-speed solution while increasing the bandwidth of the network. Fast EtherChannel aggregates multiple full-duplex Fast Ethernet links into a single logical channel between two networked devices, be it a switch, router or a server. As the independent links combine to form a logical channel, it can carry greater amounts of data and provide protection against link failure. Fast EtherChannel can be deployed on a network today and can be scaled to evolve into standards-based Gigabit Ethernet to provide a multi-gigabit backbone in the future.
Benefits
- Enhanced set of device drivers combined with industry standard Ethernet controllers provides a single source solution.
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Highly resilient and fault-tolerant implementation can be effectively deployed for mission-critical applications.
- Standards-based technology means compatibility across the platform and also with the network standards of tomorrow.
- Support for major networking operating systems, including Windows NT 4.0, Novell NetWare 4.11& 5.0 and SCO UnixWare 7.
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User and application-transparent fault recovery mechanism ensures uninterrupted network performance and decreases network downtime.
- Fast Convergence and resiliency ensure that link status, data integrity and server availability are maintained.
The PCnet Advantage
PermaNet Server provides an easy and cost-effective way to add redundancy to network servers. The new HotPlug PCI capability revolutionizes network card maintenance. Fast EtherChannel provides an easy migration path into gigabit technology while effectively adding much-needed bandwidth, resiliency, fault-tolerance and load balancing to your network. And since these features are integrated into AMD's standard set of device drivers, OEMs can offer end users benefits at no additional cost.
The implementation of features like PermaNet Server, HotPlug PCI and Fast EtherChannel demonstrate AMD's commitment to offering leading edge, standards-based technology that enables system manufacturers to add competitive features and lower the total cost of ownership of the network.
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