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Table of Contents
Abstract
The Intel X550 10GBASE-T Adapter is a low cost, low power 10 GbE performance adapter suitable for all data center applications. With support for standard CAT 6a cabling with RJ45 connectors, the X550 offers a low barrier of entry to 10 Gb Ethernet networking.
This product guide provides essential presales information to understand the Intel X550 offerings and their key features, specifications, and compatibility. This guide is intended for technical specialists, sales specialists, sales engineers, IT architects, and other IT professionals who want to learn more about Intel X550 adapters and consider their use in IT solutions.
Change History
Changes in the April 19, 2022 update:
- The following adapter is now withdrawn from marketing:
- Intel X550-T1 Single Port 10GBase-T Adapter, 00MM850
Introduction
The Intel X550 10GBASE-T Adapter is a low cost, low power 10 GbE performance adapter suitable for all data center applications. With support for standard CAT 6a cabling with RJ45 connectors, the X550 offers a low barrier of entry to 10 Gb Ethernet networking.
The following figure shows the Intel X550-T2 Dual Port 10GBase-T Adapter.
Figure 1. Intel X550-T2 Dual Port 10GBase-T Adapter
Did you know?
The Intel X550 is the newest innovation in Intel’s adapter family to drive 10 GbE into the broad server market. This adapter hosts Intel’s latest Ethernet ASIC, the Intel Ethernet Controller X550, a low-cost single-chip 10GBASE-T solution for today’s server platforms.
Part number information
The following table provides the ordering part numbers and feature codes for the Intel X550 adapter.
The adapter option part numbers includes the following items:
- One Intel 10 Gb Ethernet adapter with a full-height (3U) bracket attached
- Low-profile (2U) bracket included in the box
- Quick Install Guide
- Other documentation
The following figure shows the single-port X550-T1 adapter.
Figure 2. Intel X550-T1 single-port adapter
Features
The Intel X550 adapter has the following features:
- Supports Intel Virtualization Technology for connectivity (VT-c), I/O virtualization advances network connectivity used in today’s servers to more efficient models by providing Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP), multiple Tx/Rx queues, Tx queue rate-limiting, and on-controller QoS functionality that is useful for both virtual and non-virtual server deployments.
- Supports Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq) for NIC-based VM queue sorting, enabling efficient hypervisor-based switching. VMDq reduces I/O impact on the hypervisor in a virtualized server by performing data sorting and coalescing in the network adapter.
- Supports SR-IOV for direct assignment - NIC-based isolation and switching for various virtual station instances enabling optimal CPU usage in virtualized environment.
- Provides virtual bridging support that delivers both host-side and switch-side control and management of virtualized I/O as well as the following modes of virtualized operation:
- VEPA: IEEE 802.1Qbg support for Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator.
- VEB: Virtual Ethernet Bridge support with Intel VT.
- Supports VXLAN/NVGRE Hardware Offloads, stateless offloads that preserve application performance for overlay networks. With these offloads, it is possible to distribute network traffic across CPU cores. At the same time, the X550 offloads LSO, GSO, and checksum from the host software, which reduces CPU overhead.
- Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP), based on the SR-IOV specification, enables virtual Ethernet controllers that can be used by a Linux host directly or assigned directly to virtual machines for hypervisor virtual switch bypass. FPP enables the assignment of up to 64 Linux host processes or virtual machines per port to virtual functions. FPP can be used to control the partitioning of the bandwidth across multiple virtual functions. FPP can also provide balanced QoS by giving each assigned virtual function equal access to 10 Gb/s of bandwidth.
- MSI-X interrupts support minimizes the impact of I/O interrupts by load balancing interrupts across multiple processor cores.
- Low-Latency Interrupts: Allows the adapter to bypass the automatic moderation of time intervals between the interrupts (based on the sensitivity of the incoming data).
- Load balancing on multiple processors, which increases performance on multiprocessor systems by efficiently balancing network loads across processor cores when used with Receive Side Scaling (RSS) from Microsoft or Scalable I/O on Linux.
- Header Splits and Replication in Receive helps the driver focus on the relevant part of the packet without needing to parse it.
- Multiple queues allow packet handling without the waiting/buffer overflow, which provides efficient packet prioritization.
- Mobile and cloud application acceleration: Intel’s Data Plan Development Kit (DPDK) delivers an open driver where users can fine-tune small packet performance.
- Offload features:
- IP, TCP, and UDP checksum offload (IPv4 and IPv6)
- TCP and UDP segmentation/large send offload (IPv4 and IPv6)
- IPsec offload
- Receive Side Scaling for Windows and Scalable I/O for Linux (IPv4, IPv6, and TCP/ UDP)
- IEEE 802.1Q VLAN support with VLAN tag insertion, with stripping and packet filtering for up to 4096 VLAN tags.
- IEEE 802.3x flow control support.
- IEEE 802.1p Class of Service/Quality of Service.
- Support for Advanced Packet Filtering.
- Jumbo frames support (up to 9,500 bytes).
- Teaming support:
- Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT)
- Switch Fault Tolerance (SFT)
- Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)
- Virtual Machine Load Balancing (VMLB)
- IEEE 802.3ad (link aggregation control protocol)
- Support for both UEFI and PXE boot.
Technical specifications
The Intel X550 adapter has the following specifications:
- One or Two 10GBASE-T RJ-45 ports
- Supports 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps speeds
- Standard PCIe low-profile card form factor
- PCIe 3.0 x4 host interface
- Power consumption (10GBASE-T): 13.0 W (maximum), 11.2 (typical)
Standards supported
The Intel X550 adapter supports the following standards:
- IEEE 802.1p Class of Service (CoS) traffic prioritization
- IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
- IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol
- IEEE 802.3x Full-duplex flow control
- IEEE 802.3u 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet
- IEEE 802.3ab 1000BASE-T copper twisted pair Gigabit Ethernet
- IEEE 802.3an 10GBASE-T copper twisted pair 10 Gb Ethernet
- IEEE 802.1Qbg Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator
- IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) support
- IEEE 1588 Precision clock synchronization protocol
Server support - ThinkSystem
The following tables list the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.
Server support - System x
The following tables list the System x servers that are compatible with the Intel X550 adapter.
Support for System x and dense servers with Xeon E5/E7 v4 and E3 v5 processors
Support for System x and dense servers with Intel E5 v3 and E3 v3 processors
Support for servers with Intel Xeon v2 processors
Server support - ThinkServer
The following tables list the ThinkServer systems that are compatible.
Support for ThinkServer Gen 5 servers
Support for ThinkServer Gen 4 servers
Network cabling requirements
The network cables that can be used with the X550 are as follows:
- 10GBASE-T
- UTP Category 7 (100 m maximum)
- UTP Category 6a (100 m maximum)
- UTP Category 6 (55 m maximum)
- 1000BASE-T and 100BASE-TX
- UTP Category 7 (100 m maximum)
- UTP Category 6a (100 m maximum)
- UTP Category 6 (100 m maximum)
- UTP Category 5e (100 m maximum)
The following table lists the supported Category 6 (CAT 6) cables.
Operating system support
The following tables list the supported operating systems for the adapters:
- Intel X550-T1 Single Port 10GBase-T Adapter, 00MM850
- Intel X550-T2 Dual Port 10GBase-T Adapter, 00MM860
Tip: These tables are automatically generated based on data from Lenovo ServerProven. Older systems are not shown in the tables - refer to ServerProven for those systems.
1 For limitation, please refer Support Tip 103132Before limitation is removed, customers can also use BoMC as a workaround to update the firmware.
1 For limitation, please refer Support Tip 103132Before limitation is removed, customers can also use BoMC as a workaround to update the firmware.
2 The OS is not supported with EPYC 7003 processors.
3 ISG will not sell/preload this OS, but compatibility and cert only.
1 For limitation, please refer Support Tip 103132Before limitation is removed, customers can also use BoMC as a workaround to update the firmware.
1 For limitation, please refer Support Tip 103132Before limitation is removed, customers can also use BoMC as a workaround to update the firmware.
2 [in box driver support only]
Physical specifications
The adapter has the following physical specifications:
- Length: 134 mm (5.3 in.)
- Width: 16 mm (0.6 in.)
- Height: 69 mm (2.7 in.)
Shipping box dimensions (approximate):
- Length: 238 mm (9.4 in.)
- Width: 143 mm (5.6 in.)
- Height: 51 mm (2.0 in.)
Operating environment
These adapters are supported in the following environment:
- Operating temperature: 5 - 55 °C (41 - 131 °F)
- Storage temperature: -40 - 85 °C (-40 - 185 °F)
- Air flow requirement:
- 40 LFM at 5 °C
- 150 LFM at 55 °C
- Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3,048 m)
- Vibration and shock: IEC 68, FCC Part 68.302, NSTA, 1A
- Electrostatic/electromagnetic susceptibility: IEC 801-2, -3, -4, and -5
Warranty
One-year limited warranty. When installed in a System x server, these cards assume the system’s base warranty and any warranty upgrade.
Agency approvals
The X550 conforms to the following standards:
- UL/CSA 60950-1-07, 2nd Edition + amendment 1, dated 2011/12/19
- EN60950-1: 2006+A11:2009+A1:2010+A12:2010+A2:2013
- USA: FCC, 47 CFR Part 15, Class A digital device (USA)
- Canada: ICES-003, class A (CAN)
- EN 55032: 2013 Class A Radiated and Conducted Emissions requirements for European Union
- EN 55024: 2010 Immunity requirements for European Union (EU)
- EN-55022: Class A, 2010 Radiated and Conducted Emissions requirements for European Union (EU)
- Korea: KN32 Radiated and Conducted Emissions, KN35 Immunity
- Australia/New Zealand: AS/NZS CISPR 22:2009 + A1:2010 Class A and CISPR 32:2012 for Radiated and Conducted Emissions requirements
- CE: Passes CE specification and receives the CE Mark
- Japan: VCCI:2014-04 Class A Radiated and Conducted Emissions requirements
- Taiwan: BSMI CNS13438: 2006 (complete) Class A Radiated and Conducted Emissions requirements
- EU REACH: Complies with European REACH directive
- EU WEEE: Complies with European WEEE directive
- EU RoHS: Complies with European RoHS directive
- China: RoHS Complies with China RoHS directive
Related publications
For more information, see the following documents:
-
Lenovo ThinkSystem network adapter summary
https://lenovopress.com/lp0765-networking-options-for-thinksystem-servers -
Lenovo server options product page
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/data-center/options/ - Intel X550 product page
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ethernet-products/converged-network-adapters/ethernet-x550.html - Lenovo ServerProven compatibility information for options:
https://static.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven/options.shtml
Trademarks
Lenovo and the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both. A current list of Lenovo trademarks is available on the Web at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/legal/copytrade/.
The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both:
Lenovo®
ServerProven®
System x®
ThinkServer®
ThinkSystem®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
AMD is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Intel® and Xeon® are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Linux® is the trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.
Microsoft®, Windows Server®, and Windows® are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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Full Change History
Changes in the April 19, 2022 update:
- The following adapter is now withdrawn from marketing:
- Intel X550-T1 Single Port 10GBase-T Adapter, 00MM850
Changes in the February 23, 2021 update:
- The server support tables are now automatically updated - Server support section
Changes in the October 13, 2020 update:
- Added the SR850 V2 and SR860 V2 servers - Server support section
Changes in the September 8, 2020 update:
- The SR645 and SR665 now support the following adapter - Server support section
- Intel X550-T2 Dual Port 10GBase-T Adapter, 00MM860
Changes in the May 5, 2020 update:
- Added SR645 and SR665 to the server support table - Server support section (no support)
Changes in the January 7, 2020 update:
- Added SR850P to the server support table - Server support section
Changes in the September 8, 2019 update:
- Added the SE350 to the server table - Server support section
Changes in the March 11, 2019 update:
- Operating system support information is now listed as a set of tables which are automatically generated from ServerProven data - Operating system support section
Changes in the February 13, 2019 update:
- Add Data Plan Development Kit (DPDK) support
Changes in the November 28, 2017 update:
- Updated the ThinkSystem server support table
- Added a table of available CAT6 cables - Network cabling requirements section
Changes in the July 11, 2017 update:
Changes in the May 23, 2017 update:
- Added new single port adapter for System x servers, 00MM850
Changes in the February 21, 2017 update:
- Added ThinkServer TS460 to the Server support - ThinkServer section
- Updated operating system support information - Operating system support section
Changes in the September 13, 2016 update:
- Added ThinkServer RS160 to the Server support - ThinkServer section (no support)
First published: 14 June 2016
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