542-BBCH Dell Broadcom 57810-K Dual Port 10GB Network Interface Card

Dell 542-BBCH 2 Ports Network Interface Card Overview

Enterprise-Grade Dual Port Network Interface Solution

The Dell 542-BBCH Broadcom 57810-K is a robust dual-port 10 Gigabit Network Interface Card engineered for high-speed data environments. Designed for enterprise servers and data-intensive workloads, it delivers reliable connectivity and scalable network performance.

Key Product Highlights

• Manufacturer: Dell
• Part Number / SKU: 542-BBCH
• Device Category: Network Interface Card (NIC)
• Port Configuration: Dual-port architecture

Advanced Technical Specifications

Connectivity and Interface Standards

This network adapter is built with modern interface technology to ensure seamless integration into server infrastructures.

Core Technical Features

• Host Interface: PCI Express
• Network Standard: 10GBase-T
• Data Transfer Rate: Up to 10Gb/s
• Media Type: Twisted Pair cabling support

Port and Interface Configuration

• Total Ethernet Ports: 2
• Supported Connector Types: RJ-45 / SFP / SFP+
• Total Network Interfaces: 2 dedicated ports

Design and Build Characteristics

Compact and Server-Optimized Form Factor

Built in a plug-in card format, this NIC is optimized for efficient installation within compatible server systems, ensuring minimal space usage while maximizing performance output.

Physical Attributes

• Form Factor: Plug-in expansion card
• Design Focus: High-density server environments

Compliance and Industry Standards

Environmentally Responsible Engineering

The Dell 542-BBCH NIC adheres to globally recognized environmental and safety regulations, making it suitable for enterprise deployments with compliance requirements.

Regulatory Certifications

• RoHS compliant for hazardous substance restriction
• WEEE compliant for electronic waste management

Dell 542-BBCH Broadcom 2 Port 10Gb Network Interface Card

The Dell 542-BBCH Broadcom 57810-K Dual Port 10Gb Network Interface Card represents a high-performance enterprise-grade networking solution designed to meet the growing demands of modern data centers, cloud infrastructures, and virtualization environments. Built on the trusted Broadcom 57810-K controller architecture, this dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter delivers exceptional throughput, low latency, and advanced offloading capabilities that significantly enhance server networking efficiency. Engineered for compatibility with Dell PowerEdge servers, this NIC is widely deployed in mission-critical environments where speed, reliability, and scalability are essential for maintaining seamless data communication.

As organizations continue to scale their digital infrastructure, the need for high-bandwidth connectivity becomes increasingly critical. The Dell 542-BBCH adapter addresses these requirements by providing two independent 10GbE ports, enabling link aggregation, redundancy, and load balancing. This ensures uninterrupted network availability while maximizing performance across virtual machines, storage networks, and application workloads.

Broadcom 57810-K Controller Architecture

At the core of the Dell 542-BBCH network interface card lies the Broadcom 57810-K chipset, a widely recognized controller in enterprise networking. This chipset is engineered to support advanced networking features such as TCP/IP offload engine (TOE), large send offload (LSO), and receive-side scaling (RSS). These capabilities significantly reduce CPU overhead by transferring processing tasks from the server CPU to the NIC hardware itself, thereby improving overall system efficiency.

The architecture also supports virtualization technologies such as VMware NetQueue and Microsoft VMQ (Virtual Machine Queue), enabling optimized traffic distribution across virtualized workloads. This makes the adapter particularly suitable for environments where multiple virtual machines operate concurrently on a single physical host.

Dual-Port 10GbE Connectivity Design

One of the most important features of the Dell 542-BBCH Broadcom 57810-K NIC is its dual-port configuration. Each port supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, allowing a combined potential bandwidth of 20Gbps under full utilization scenarios. This dual-port design enhances redundancy and ensures continuous connectivity even in the event of a port failure.

High Bandwidth Aggregation

By leveraging link aggregation techniques such as IEEE 802.3ad (LACP), administrators can combine both ports to create a single high-throughput channel. This is particularly beneficial for storage-intensive applications, database clusters, and high-performance computing workloads that require consistent and reliable data transfer speeds.

Redundancy and Failover Support

The dual-port setup also plays a critical role in network redundancy. In enterprise environments where uptime is crucial, failover configurations ensure that if one port experiences disruption, the secondary port automatically takes over traffic handling. This minimizes downtime and enhances system resilience.

Performance Optimization and Throughput Efficiency

The Dell 542-BBCH Broadcom 57810-K NIC is engineered to deliver optimized performance in high-density computing environments. With support for advanced offloading technologies, the adapter reduces CPU utilization and allows servers to dedicate more resources to application processing rather than network handling.

Low Latency Data Processing

Low latency is a critical requirement in financial systems, cloud computing platforms, and real-time analytics applications. The Broadcom 57810-K controller minimizes packet processing delays by handling segmentation, checksum calculations, and packet filtering directly within the hardware layer. This ensures faster response times and more predictable network performance.

Hardware Offloading Capabilities

TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO)

TSO enables the NIC to handle segmentation of large data packets, reducing the workload on the CPU and improving data transmission efficiency across the network.

Large Receive Offload (LRO)

LRO aggregates multiple incoming packets into larger buffers before passing them to the operating system, improving CPU efficiency and increasing throughput in high-traffic environments.

Checksum Offloading

By offloading checksum calculations to the NIC hardware, system resources are preserved, resulting in faster packet validation and reduced processing bottlenecks.

Enterprise Data Center Applications

The Dell 542-BBCH Broadcom 57810-K Dual Port 10Gb NIC is widely used in enterprise data centers where high-speed connectivity and reliability are essential. Its architecture supports large-scale server deployments, virtualization clusters, and cloud computing environments.

Data Center Networking Infrastructure

In modern data centers, network traffic is continuously increasing due to cloud services, big data analytics, and distributed applications. This NIC provides the necessary bandwidth and reliability to handle east-west traffic between servers and storage systems efficiently.

Virtualization and Hypervisor Environments

Virtualization platforms such as VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Linux KVM benefit significantly from the adapter’s support for VM-aware networking technologies. Each virtual machine can be allocated dedicated queues, ensuring balanced traffic distribution and minimal contention.

VMware Integration

The adapter supports VMware NetQueue, allowing efficient packet distribution across multiple virtual machine queues. This improves scalability and reduces network bottlenecks in virtualized environments.

Hyper-V Optimization

With support for Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ), Microsoft Hyper-V environments can achieve improved network throughput and reduced CPU overhead when handling multiple virtual workloads.

Cloud Computing Infrastructure

Cloud service providers rely heavily on high-bandwidth network adapters like the Dell 542-BBCH to ensure consistent service delivery. Whether supporting private clouds or hybrid environments, the dual-port 10GbE capability ensures seamless scalability and performance.

Compatibility and System Integration

The Dell 542-BBCH Broadcom 57810-K NIC is designed for seamless integration with Dell PowerEdge servers, ensuring optimized firmware compatibility and driver support. This tight integration reduces configuration complexity and enhances system stability.

Supported Operating Systems

The adapter supports a wide range of enterprise operating systems including Microsoft Windows Server editions, Linux distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Ubuntu Server editions. This broad compatibility ensures flexibility across heterogeneous IT environments.

Server Hardware Compatibility

Designed specifically for Dell enterprise hardware, the NIC is compatible with multiple PowerEdge server generations. It fits into standard PCIe slots and supports high-speed PCI Express interfaces for maximum data transfer efficiency.

PCIe Bandwidth Utilization

Leveraging PCI Express Gen2 and Gen3 architectures, the adapter ensures optimal utilization of available system bus bandwidth, minimizing bottlenecks between network interface and system memory.