Solarflare Communications, the leader in standards-compliant 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) silicon, will demonstrate its next-generation 10GBASE-T technology at WinHEC, November 5-7, 2008, in Los Angeles, CA. This is the first public 10GbE virtualization demo operating with a Windows 7 virtual machine running on Hyper-V technology.

The demo is based on the new Solarflare SFN411T server adapter reference design, which combines Solarflare’s 10GBASE-T PHY and 10GbE controller technology. The technology shows line-rate 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) server and storage virtualization. Consuming only 10 watts of power, the SFN411T is the industry’s lowest power and greenest 10GbE server adapter. Solarflare is working with key industry players, including Microsoft, to provide cost-effective and easily implemented 10GbE solutions in all virtualized environments, allowing for mass adoption. Data centers and enterprises can upgrade their existing infrastructures to 10GbE, without requiring a network overhaul, to ensure that bandwidth-intensive applications run smoothly and efficiently.

“Virtualization is a hot technology and Microsoft is making great progress in their support, and our demo shows that low-power, high-performance 10GBASE-T solutions are possible in virtualized environments on upcoming operating systems,” said Bruce Tolley, vice president of marketing at Solarflare. “The SFN4111T reference design is currently under evaluation with several Tier 1 OEM customers. To date, they are very impressed by the adapter’s wire-speed performance, virtualization support for multiple operating systems and super-low power.”