Intel Buys Adapter Maker NetEffect for $8M

Intel Corp. (INTC) has announced the acquisition of NetEffect Inc., a maker of gigabit Ethernet adapters for servers and blade configuration, for $8 million to help customers with the convergence of network and storage traffic.

Intel purchased NetEffect's assets, which include the company's Ethernet product portfolio, intellectual property and technology. NetEffect was a provider of solutions incorporating iWARP, an Ethernet alternative to InfiniBand.

NetEffect's product portfolio includes 1 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) adapters for servers and blade configurations as well as 10 GbE Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs).

“The combination of Intel and NetEffect technology will allow Intel to address our customers' most important 10 Gigabit Ethernet needs, including server virtualization, convergence of network and storage traffic, and server compute clusters,” said Tom Swinford, general manager of Intel’s LAN Access Division, in prepared comments.

Designed for multi-core processor-based servers and optimized for virtualization, Intel says its current line of 10GbE server adapters includes single and dual port versions for both copper and fiber implementations.

The NetEffect acquisition, Intel claims, provides complementary High Performance Network Interface Card (NIC) products to Intel's Ethernet portfolio.

NetEffect was founded in 1998 as Banderacom, a company focused on InfiniBand adapters and 16-port IB switch, and was recapitalized in 2004 as NetEffect. Thirty employees, primarily engineers, have joined the Intel team from NetEffect and will continue to be based in Austin, TX.

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