Netxen Announces First 10-Gigabit Ethernet Driver Support for VMware ESX Server 3.5

Solution to Provide Advanced Intelligent I/O Subsystem for ESX Server Virtualization System

Santa Clara, Calif., December 11, 2007 - NetXen, Inc., the leader in multi-protocol 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology, today announced its NetSlice™ drivers for VMware Infrastructure 3 version 3.5. This is the first 10-Gigabit Intelligent NIC® solution to be natively supported by VMware, and is the first product of a technology collaboration between the two companies designed to optimize the I/O subsystem of virtual machines.

This announcement follows on the successful demonstration at VMworld in September, 2007 of a next-generation I/O architecture that NetXen and VMware have been collaborating on for more than two years.

"Virtualization, multicore processors and high-performance networking will form the basis of next-generation virtual datacenters," said Vikram Karvat, senior director of marketing, NetXen. "The new NetSlice driver with ESX Server 3.5 support will allow our customers to deploy leading-edge networking and virtualization technologies that are architected and validated jointly between NetXen and VMware. The result is a robust, high-performance networking solution that will enable virtual infrastructures to continue to scale."

"HP is the leader in server virtualization, and optimizing I/O and network infrastructures for virtualization is a strategic initiative for HP," said John Gromala, director of ProLiant Server Product Marketing at HP. "HP is committed to working with leading industry vendors such as NetXen to help businesses plan, implement and operate top performing virtualized environments using VMware."

The support for VMware ESX Server 3.5 is built around NetXen's NetSlice I/O virtualization architecture and Intelligent NIC products. The NetSlice architecture provides a broad set of I/O virtualization resources that enable virtual machines to achieve significantly higher I/O performance than non-virtualized NICs.

Availability
NetXen Intelligent NIC products with I/O virtualization support are currently shipping to leading server OEMs. The NetSlice driver for VMware ESX Server 3.5 is inbox and also available for download from VMware.

About NetXen
NetXen, Inc. is a privately held company that manufactures intelligent 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking chips that advance enterprise datacenter performance and agility. Founded in February 2002 by chip design veteran Govind Kizhepat, the company is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., with an office in Pune, India. NetXen's protocol- and OS-agnostic Intelligent NICs are designed for volume 10 Gigabit deployments and are targeted at server, storage, security and networking systems. Additional information about the company and its patented chip architecture is available at www.netxen.com.

NetXen, the NetXen logo and Intelligent NIC are trademarks of NetXen, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Return to top