Windows Server 2008 to Support Intel I/O Acceleration Technology

Published: August 1, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Windows Server 2008 will include native support for Intel's I/O Acceleration Technology (I/OAT), a technology designed to speeds the performance of TCP/IP and other CPU-related messaging technologies, a Microsoft engineer said last week.

"Microsoft and Intel have worked closely to deliver integrated support for Intel I/OAT in the upcoming release of Windows Server 2008," said Henry Sanders, distinguished engineer and general manager of Microsoft Windows Networking, according to a press release posted to the Intel Web site last week. "Our mutual customers will benefit from the numerous enhancements in these products, resulting in even greater application performance and scalability on their multicore Intel Xeon processor-based Windows Servers."

Intel rolled out I/OAT in 2005 as a way to boost the performance of processing TCP/IP requests, as well as other CPU-related messaging technologies. Instead of offloading TCP/IP workloads to separate, dedicated chips, Intel is keeping these workloads on its Xeon processors, an approach Intel says is more efficient.

However, I/OAT requires changes to be made in the CPU, in the chipset, in software compilers, and in operating systems. The technology is currently available to Windows Server 2003 customers as part of Microsoft's Scalable Networking Pack, and will be a built-in part of the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

Intel last week also rolled out two new Ethernet controllers that it says will boost the performance of multicore Xeon servers, and which also support the I/OAT technology. The Intel 82598 is a 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller that provides dual-port, PCI Express-based connectivity to handle high-speed interconnects. Intel says the products addresses the networking bottlenecks associated with server consolidation and is ideal for virtualization and such demanding enterprise applications as storage and high performance computing. The Intel 82575 Gigabit controller offers many of the same features at 1 Gigabit speeds, and is designed for use in Intel's next-generation low-profile, quad-port server adapters, the company says.

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