10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch Blade for Large-Scale Blade Servers

The introduction of blade servers for diverse applications is expanding rapidly. The switch blade - a key network component of the blade server - must provide high performance to accommodate growing data-communication demands generated by network consolidation as in Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FC0E), have a compact, low-power-consumption design, and have switch control software optimized for blade server systems. To meet these requirements, the author has developed a 10 Gigabit Ethernet (1OGbE) switch blade suitable for large-scale blade servers. This paper focuses on the 1OGbE switch LSI MB86C69, whose features have been optimized for blade servers, the high-speed transceiver circuit integrated into this ISI, and the switch control software for easy network configuration of switch blades.