Intel Corporation today announced its acquisition of the assets of
NetEffect Inc., a network connectivity solutions company specializing in
Ethernet products and technologies for server compute clusters.
“NetEffect’s role as
a data communications solution provider and the company’s
technology will enhance Intel’s current
Ethernet efforts,” said Tom Swinford, general
manager, Intel LAN Access Division. “The
combination of Intel and NetEffect technology will allow Intel to
address our customers’ most important 10
Gigabit Ethernet needs, including server virtualization, convergence of
network and storage traffic, and server compute clusters.”
Intel purchased NetEffect’s assets for $8
million, which include the company’s Ethernet
product portfolio, intellectual property and technology. NetEffect was a
provider of solutions incorporating iWARP, an Ethernet alternative to
InfiniBand. NetEffect’s product portfolio
includes 1 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) adapters for servers
and blade configurations as well as 10 GbE Application Specific
Integrated Circuits (ASICs).
Designed for multi-core processor-based servers and optimized for
virtualization, Intel’s current portfolio of
10GbE server adapters includes single and dual port versions for both
copper and fiber implementations. The NetEffect acquisition provides
complementary High Performance Network Interface Card (NIC) products to
Intel’s Ethernet portfolio.
NetEffect was founded in 1998 as Banderacom, a company focused on
InfiniBand adapters and 16-port IB switch, and was recapitalized in 2004
as NetEffect. Thirty employees, primarily engineers, have joined the
Intel team from NetEffect and will continue to be based in Austin, Texas.