Solarflare Awarded Four New Patents That Enable Unique Hardware-Assisted, Scalable Virtualization

Solarflare's 10 Gigabit Ethernet server adapters enable accelerated virtualized networking, delivering optimized performance in cloud enterprise environments

IRVINE, Calif. - December 7, 2009 - Solarflare Communications, the leader in 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), today announced it has been granted four patents by the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). These patents cement the company's leadership in virtualization by enabling hardware-assisted, scalable virtualization techniques. This technology enables organizations to develop solutions that can achieve line-rate performance in Citrix® XenServer™ and VMware® vSphere™ cloud computing environments by supporting direct access of the virtual machines to the adapter hardware.

The four new patents include:

1. DMA descriptor queue read and cache write pointer arrangement (US Patent 7496699). This invention enables implementation of a highly-scalable descriptor caching engine for virtualized Ethernet devices.
2. Transmit completion event batching (US Patent 7562366), which enables a high-performance notification mechanism for virtualized Ethernet devices.
3. Queue depth management (US Patent 7610413). This design innovation creates an interface for high-performance synchronization of virtualized Ethernet devices.
4. Rate pacing (US Patent 7596644), which enables hard QoS provisioning at Layer 2/3/4 for virtualized Ethernet devices.

Because of its strong accelerated virtualization performance and patented architecture, the Solarflare® Solarstorm® SFN4112F 10GbE server adapteris the leading adapter for cloud networking. This is demonstrated by Cloudsoft's selection of the Solarflare adapter in recent benchmark testing of Monterey, Cloudsoft's enterprise-class cloud platform. Cloud environments in particular benefit from high-performance virtualized networking because of the need for a flexible, scalable infrastructure. With a fully virtualized architecture, Solarflare's controller delivers the performance and scalability that cloud environments demand.

The test leveraged solutions from multiple vendor partners including Solarflare, Citrix and Arista Networks, and yielded 18.5 Gigabits per second (Gbps) bi-directional line rate on a 10G physical connection. Solarflare's 10GbE server adapter leverages a hardware and software architecture based on multiple patents, including the four new US patents, which protect a family of inventions required for scalable, hardware-assisted virtualization.

"Solarflare has demonstrated scalable, line-rate virtual machine to virtual machine networking performance with both VMware's vSphere and Citrix XenServer 5.5," said Dr. Steve Pope, co-founder and CTO of controllers at Solarflare Communications. "We are excited to see the Solarstorm SFN4112F positioned to be the leading 10GbE server adapter for cloud networking in enterprises due to its virtualization design enhancements. We are also happy to see our inventions recognized by the USPTO with the four newly-granted patents."

Solarflare continues to pursue state-of-the-art innovations to increase its ability to sustain competitive advantage and increase product differentiation in the market. Since 2001 to safeguard its intellectual property and drive innovation in the industry, Solarflare has filed more than 127 patent applications, of which 25 patents have been issued.

About Solarflare Communications, Inc.

Solarflare Communications is the leading provider of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) silicon and server adapters. Solarflare's robust and power-efficient solutions are cost effective and easy to deploy. Ready for primetime, Solarflare 10GbE products make possible next-generation applications such cloud computing, server virtualization, network convergence and low-latency networking (with OpenOnload™) for market data applications. Solarflare 10GbE adapters have proven their performance in testing conducted by Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC) Research with Cisco switches and IBM servers. Solarflare silicon can be found in switches, adapters and test equipment shipping from Dell, SMC Networks and others. The company has announced partnerships with Accton, Arista Networks, Citrix, Cloudsoft, CommScope, Delta Networks, Panduit, SR Labs and VMware. Solarflare is headquartered in Irvine, California, has an R&D site in Cambridge, UK and sales offices in Taiwan and China.

For more information on pricing and availability of Solarflare products, contact productinfo@solarflare.com.

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