IBM 46K6602 2-Port, 1GB ETH-SX PCIE Express

Core Overview

• Manufacturer: IBM

• Product Type: PCIe x4 2-Port 1Gbps Ethernet-SX Fiber Adapter

• Primary Part Number (FRU): 46K6602

• CCIN (Customer Card Identification Number): 5274

• IBM Feature Codes (FC): * FC 5768: Full-Height Bracket (Standard Profile) configuration.

  • FC 5268: Low-Profile Bracket (Half-Height) configuration.

Port & Optical Connectivity

This adapter is engineered strictly for short-wavelength optical fiber Local Area Network (LAN) backbones, relying on high-reliability laser modules:

• Physical Ports: Two (2) 1Gbps Ethernet ports.

• Connector Type: Dual LC-type fiber optic connectors.

• Optical Media Specs: * Uses 850 nanometer (nm) short-wavelength (SX) multimode optical fibers.

  • Maximum Transmission Distances:

    • Up to 275 meters using 62.5-micron multimode fiber ($OM1$ multi-mode core specification).

    • Up to 550 meters using 50.0-micron multimode fiber ($OM2$ / $OM3$ multi-mode core specification).

• Speed Support: Fixed at 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps) per port. (Note: This adapter operates in Full-Duplex mode exclusively and does not auto-negotiate down to legacy 10/100 Mbps copper Ethernet parameters).

Interface & Performance Specifications

• Bus Architecture: PCI Express 1.1 (PCIe Gen1) x4 mechanical and electrical interface. Backward compatible with PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 slots.

• Controller Processor: High-performance Intel Intel 82571EB dual-port MAC/PHY Gigabit controller.

• Hardware Offloading Protocols:

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

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

  • Interrupt Moderation Layer (smooths CPU overhead during peak package bursts).

• Jumbo Frames: Supports transmission frames up to 9 KB (9000 bytes) for minimized transport header payload splits.

Hardware Compatibility

The 46K6602 / FC 5768 card is supported across multiple generations of IBM Power Systems (POWER5+, POWER6, POWER7, and POWER8 frameworks), alongside specific System i and System p mid-range frameworks.

Supported target profiles include:

• POWER7 Systems: IBM Power 720 (8202-E4B/E4C/E4D), Power 740 (8205-E6B/E6C/E6D), Power 750, and Power 770.

• POWER8 Scale-Out Nodes: IBM Power S814 (8286-41A), S822 (8284-22A), S824 (8286-42A).

• PCIe Enclosures: Can be expanded into external PCIe drawers, such as the #5802 or #5877 12X I/O expansion drawers.

Operating System Support

• AIX: Natively integrated via the devices.pciex.14104003 driver stack. Supports network teaming (EtherChannel / IEEE 802.3ad link aggregation).

• IBM i: Supported natively for communication lines, configuration tasks, or partition bridges (Minimum level: IBM i 5.4 or later).

• Linux: Managed natively through the open-source Linux kernel e1000e driver module framework (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Ubuntu Server).

• VIOS (Virtual I/O Server): Fully virtualized to enable virtual Ethernet switching across concurrent tenant Logical Partitions (LPARs).