Cisco Nexus X25 25Gigabit Ethernet Card

Ultra-low latency network interface card

The fastest network adapter we have built

The Cisco Nexus^® X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) is specifically optimized for low-latency operation.

Features software trigger-to-response latencies as low as 568ns. This is up to 20 percent faster than previous Cisco Nexus SmartNIC models, making it the fastest NIC we have built. Users will find that this drop-in replacement NIC accelerates tick-to-trade performance to previously unachievable speeds, increasing the efficacy and profitability of software-based trading systems.

Advanced software programmability

The Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) provides the most powerful programmable software interface on the market.

Programmability features include:

• Zero-latency cost hardware flow steering, allowing users to steer and prefilter important traffic to the right memory and CPU core with no latency penalty.
• Cut-through receive, which allows software to process packet fragments as they arrive from the wire, while packet tails are still in flight. This is especially effective for slow line speeds (for example, 1GbE). The Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) software API puts users well ahead of traditional store-and-forward NIC designs to make decisions faster.
• ExaSOCK TCP/IP acceleration: Unmodified socket applications can benefit from the speed and power of the Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) using ExaSOCK. ExaSOCK is an in-place TCP/IP socket acceleration system. ExaSOCK's Extension API allows it to seamlessly interoperate with the Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) transmit preloading feature.
• Pre-loaded packet transmit: The Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) allows users to preload transmit frames, saving 60ns from the transmit path. The Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) features enlarged packet transmit buffers allowing many more frames to be preloaded, leading to more versatile transmission choices.
• High-resolution timestamps: 4ns timestamps are applied to every received packet and the most recently transmitted packet. The Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) also features out of the box support for IEEE1588 (PTP) and high-speed capture to disk using free and open-source exact-capture software.

25GbE ready

The Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) is a pure FPGA-based network adapter that is 25GbE ready.

Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) network adapters extend the useful life of the device by allowing new features and speed enhancements to be downloaded into a device after deployment. For example, the Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) will support 25G Ethernet speeds through a firmware update. This will reduce capital expenditure on difficult infrastructure upgrades.

All FPGA design

The Cisco Nexus X25 SmartNIC (K3P-S) is built using the latest generation Xilinx Ultrascale+ FPGA.

It optionally ships with 4GB of DDR4 memory for custom use. It is a compact adapter in a low-profile form- factor. Users can benefit from the pure FPGA design by offloading critical network processing functions directly into the NIC using our fast and powerful Firmware Development Kit (FDK), while maintaining the ease of use and administration of a production-grade network adapter.