Intel Buys Data-center Ethernet Maker NetEffect

Intel has acquired the assets of NetEffect, a maker of Ethernet chips and adapters for high-performance computing clusters, for US$8 million.

The company's Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet adapters, ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) and intellectual property will complement Intel's current Ethernet portfolio, Intel announced on Wednesday. The added products will help Intel address demand for server compute clusters, server virtualization, and convergence of network and storage traffic, Intel said.

NetEffect's products support iWARP, a set of extensions to Ethernet from the RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) Consortium that is designed to eliminate overhead and latency in Ethernet networks. Intel described iWARP as an alternative to InfiniBand.

NetEffect was formed in 1998 as Banderacom, a maker of an InfiniBand switch and adapters, and recapitalized under its current name in 2004. Its 30 employees have joined Intel but will remain in Austin, Texas.