IBM 00E2718 2-Port PCIe2 10GbE BaseT RJ45 Adapter 2CC4

Core Overview

• Manufacturer: IBM

• Product Type: PCIe2 2-Port 10GBASE-T RJ45 Network Interface Card (NIC)

• Primary Part Number (FRU): 00E2718

• Alternate Base FRU (Assembly): 00E2714

• CCIN (Customer Card Identification Number): 2CC4

• IBM Feature Codes (FC):

  • FC EN0W: Full-Height Bracket (Standard Profile) configuration.

  • FC EN0X: Low-Profile Bracket (Half-Height) configuration.

Port & Media Connectivity

Unlike its sibling card (00E2719), which features a hybrid SFP+/RJ45 architecture, this card focuses purely on standard twisted-pair copper infrastructure at high speeds:

• Physical Ports: Two (2) 10GBASE-T RJ45 copper ports.

• Cabling Requirements: * 10 Gbps Operation: Requires Category 6A (Cat 6A) or Category 7 (Cat 7) unshielded/shielded twisted-pair copper cabling for distances up to 100 meters. (Standard Cat 6 can be used for shorter distances up to 55 meters).

  • 1 Gbps Operation: Compatible with standard Category 5e (Cat 5e) or Cat 6 cabling up to 100 meters.

• Auto-Negotiation: Dynamically senses and bridges network link speeds between 1 Gbps (1000BASE-T) and 10 Gbps (10GBASE-T). (Note: 10/100 Mbps legacy speeds are not supported).

Interface & Performance Specifications

• Bus Architecture: PCI Express 2.0 (PCIe Gen2) x8 mechanical and electrical slot interface.

• Duplex Mode: Supports Full-Duplex operational constraints exclusively.

• Maximum Frame Size: Supports Jumbo Frames up to 9.6 KB.

• Hardware Offloading Capabilities:

  • TCP / UDP Checksum Offload transmission (IPv4 and IPv6 stack verification).

  • Large Send Offload (LSO) / TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO).

  • Direct support for Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI-X) vectors to lower virtualization overhead.

  • Enhanced Receive-Side Scaling (RSS) to distribute network receive processing across multiple processor cores.

Hardware Compatibility

The 00E2718 adapter maps into high-performance PCIe tiers of IBM Power Systems (POWER7+, POWER8, and POWER9 architectures) scale-out and mid-range systems:

• POWER7+ / POWER8 Systems: IBM Power S814 (8286-41A), S822 (8284-22A), S824 (8286-42A), Power 720 (8202-E4D), Power 740 (8205-E6D).

• POWER9 Systems: IBM Power S922 (9009-22A / 9009-22G), Power S924 (9009-42A / 9009-42G).

Operating System Support

• AIX: Recognized via native network subsystem components. Supports network pooling/aggregation (EtherChannel / IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation).

• IBM i: Fully compatible for native TCP/IP routing configurations, external service interface provisioning, or partition clustering.

• Linux: Supported natively via standard enterprise network stack controllers embedded within Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), and Ubuntu Server distributions.

• VIOS: Fully virtualized to allow multi-tenant Logical Partitions (LPARs) to balance workload access safely over the shared physical links.