System management solution for cloud computing

5th November 2013

Broadcom

Nat Bowers

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A world first has today been announced with Broadcom's new BCM5725, the first Gigabit Ethernet Controller to integrate a management controller with a high-performance network controller. Specifically designed for large data center and cloud environments, the BCM5725 GbE controller provides a streamlined, power-efficient and robust Ethernet and manageability solution.

Greg Scherer, Broadcom's vice president of server and storage strategy, commented: "We are enabling a new class of networking products, such as Open Compute Project AMD Open 3.0 Modular Server, through our advanced Ethernet controllers with enhanced manageability and features."

As the deployment of public and private cloud environments increase, scalable, cost- and energy-efficient architectures are required to support today's cloud computing demands. The BCM5725 replaces three separate components from existing server designs - the baseboard management controller, GbE controller and system management firmware. With the BCM5725, Broadcom offers a configurable systems management solution to scale out new servers for high-performance cloud computing applications.

"Integrating the system management functionality into the Ethernet controller highlights the trend that IDC is tracking of increasing intelligence at every point in the flow of IP traffic, and IDC believes that this feature will help accelerate adoption of non-proprietary, open hardware in line with the goals of the Open Compute Project," comments Abhi Dugar, IDC Research Manager for Cloud and Mobile Infrastructure Semiconductors.

Important features of the BCM5725 include: integrated 10/100/1000BASE-T and transceiver, IEEE compliance with IEEE 802.3az-2010, Energy Efficient Ethernet, x1 PCI Express+ v2.1 at 5.0 GT/s or 2.5 GT/s, and SMASH 2.0/WS-Management and IPMI 2.0/DCMI 1.5 standards based system management.

The BCM5725 incorporates TruManage technology that enables a comprehensive set of system management features, including: asset tracking of hardware/software inventory, and sensors-based monitoring, power control (graceful and ungraceful) and boot control (one-time and persistent boot configurations), user account management (accounts, roles and privileges), alerts and indications; event and audit logs, BIOS management, management firmware update, text console and media redirections, and power consumption reporting and power capping.

Broadcom's BCM5725 devices are currently sampling with volume production slated for Q413.