930PP Dell C6420 Broadcom 57404 Dual Port 25GBE SFP28 RNDC.

Dell Dual Port 25GBE SFP28 RNDC

The Dell 930PP C6420 Broadcom 57404 Dual Port 25GbE SFP28 RNDC is a high-performance network adapter designed for enterprise-grade connectivity. With dual 25GbE ports, PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, and OCP 2.0 mezzanine form factor, this adapter ensures reliable networking, efficient data transfer, and seamless integration with Dell PowerEdge servers.

General Information

Manufacturer Details

• Manufacturer: Dell
• Model Number: 930PP
• Product Type: Network Adapter

Technical Specifications

• Data Transfer Rate: 25Gbps per port
• Connectors: 2 x SFP28 slots (transceivers not included)
• Interface Type: PCIe 3.0 x8
• Form Factor: OCP 2.0 Mezzanine Card

Performance Highlights

Speed & Efficiency

• Dual 25GbE ports for high-speed connectivity
• PCIe 3.0 x8 interface ensures optimal bandwidth
• Supports enterprise workloads with reliable performance

Compatibility Information

Designed For

Dell PowerEdge C-Series (High-Density Servers)

Supported Models

• C6420 (most common)
• C6400

Dell PowerEdge R-Series (Rack Servers)

Supported Models

• R640, R6415, R6515
• R740, R740xd, R740xd2
• R7425, R7515
• R840, R940, R940xa

Dell PowerEdge T-Series (Tower Servers)

Supported Models

• T440
• T640

Dell 930PP Broadcom 57404 Dual Port SFP28 RNDC Overview

The Dell 930PP C6420 Broadcom 57404 Dual Port 25GbE SFP28 RNDC represents a high-performance network daughter card designed for dense computing platforms, particularly optimized for the Dell PowerEdge C6420 modular server architecture. This RNDC (Rack Network Daughter Card) integrates enterprise-grade networking capabilities directly into the server motherboard ecosystem, enabling ultra-low latency, high bandwidth, and efficient data movement across virtualized and cloud-native infrastructures. Built on the Broadcom 57404 Ethernet controller, this solution delivers a dual-port 25 Gigabit Ethernet configuration using SFP28 optical interfaces, ensuring compatibility with next-generation data center networking standards.

The RNDC design eliminates traditional PCIe NIC constraints by embedding the networking subsystem closer to the CPU and memory fabric, reducing hop latency and improving throughput consistency. This architectural approach is especially beneficial in hyperscale environments where thousands of compute nodes must communicate simultaneously with minimal overhead.

Broadcom 57404 Controller Engineering

At the core of this networking module is the Broadcom 57404 controller, a highly integrated Ethernet solution engineered for 25GbE workloads. It supports advanced packet processing, hardware offloads, and virtualization acceleration features that reduce CPU utilization during high-volume network traffic processing. The controller is optimized for both stateless and stateful operations, allowing efficient handling of modern workloads such as microservices, distributed databases, and container orchestration platforms.

SFP28 Interface Implementation

The dual SFP28 ports on this RNDC provide flexible connectivity options for optical fiber networking or direct attach copper solutions depending on deployment requirements. The SFP28 standard supports 25Gbps per lane, offering a significant performance upgrade compared to 10GbE infrastructure while maintaining backward compatibility with certain breakout configurations. This allows seamless integration into existing data center architectures while enabling a gradual transition toward higher-speed networking.

High-Performance Data Center Networking Capabilities

Bandwidth Optimization and Low Latency Communication

The Dell 930PP C6420 RNDC is engineered for environments where predictable latency and sustained throughput are critical. By leveraging 25GbE connectivity, it ensures that data-intensive applications such as virtualization clusters, analytics pipelines, and high-frequency transaction systems can operate without network bottlenecks. The dual-port design allows simultaneous traffic distribution, enabling redundancy and load balancing across network paths.

Packet Processing Efficiency

The Broadcom 57404 controller incorporates advanced packet steering and load distribution mechanisms that optimize how network frames are processed and forwarded. This reduces CPU interrupt overhead and allows compute resources to remain focused on application workloads rather than network stack processing. The result is improved system efficiency, particularly in heavily virtualized environments where network traffic is highly dynamic.

Latency-Sensitive Workload Optimization

For latency-sensitive applications such as real-time analytics and financial trading systems, the RNDC architecture minimizes data traversal distance within the server. By integrating networking closer to the system bus, it reduces the number of processing layers required for packet handling, ensuring faster response times and consistent throughput under peak load conditions.

Integration with Dell PowerEdge C6420 Server Platform

Modular Server Ecosystem Alignment

The Dell 930PP RNDC is specifically engineered for the Dell PowerEdge C6420 modular chassis, a high-density compute platform designed for scale-out workloads. This integration ensures that networking is tightly aligned with compute node architecture, allowing each sled within the chassis to operate with dedicated high-speed network access. The modular nature of the C6420 enables efficient scaling of compute and networking resources independently while maintaining system coherence.

Internal Connectivity and PCIe Optimization

Within the server architecture, the RNDC connects through optimized PCIe pathways that reduce congestion and maximize throughput efficiency. This direct integration eliminates the need for traditional external NIC installations, freeing up expansion slots and improving airflow dynamics within the chassis. The result is a cleaner, more efficient server design that supports higher compute density per rack unit.

Thermal and Mechanical Integration

The design of the RNDC takes into account the thermal constraints of dense server environments. Heat dissipation is managed through strategic placement within the server airflow path, ensuring that sustained high-bandwidth operations do not lead to thermal throttling. The mechanical design is aligned with Dell’s modular engineering standards, ensuring reliable long-term operation in enterprise data centers.

Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure Acceleration

Support for Hypervisors and Container Platforms

The Dell 930PP Broadcom 57404 RNDC is optimized for virtualization-heavy environments, supporting major hypervisors and container orchestration systems. Its hardware offload capabilities reduce overhead in virtual switching environments, allowing virtual machines and containers to communicate more efficiently across distributed networks. This is particularly important in cloud-native infrastructures where east-west traffic dominates network usage patterns.

SR-IOV and Virtual Function Acceleration

Single Root I/O Virtualization support enables the RNDC to partition physical network resources into multiple virtual functions. This allows virtual machines to directly access network hardware, bypassing hypervisor overhead and improving throughput. The result is near-native network performance for virtual workloads, making it suitable for private cloud deployments and enterprise virtualization clusters.

Data Center Scalability and High-Density Deployment

Optimized for Hyperscale Infrastructure

The Dell 930PP C6420 RNDC is designed with hyperscale environments in mind, where thousands of nodes operate in tightly interconnected clusters. The 25GbE bandwidth per port ensures that aggregation layers can handle large volumes of east-west traffic without congestion. This makes the module particularly suitable for large-scale cloud service providers and enterprise data centers undergoing digital transformation.

Traffic Aggregation Efficiency

In distributed computing environments, efficient traffic aggregation is essential. The dual-port configuration allows separation of management and data traffic or implementation of redundant network paths for failover resilience. This enhances reliability and ensures continuous uptime even under heavy network strain.

Scalable Fabric Architecture Compatibility

The RNDC integrates seamlessly into modern leaf-spine network architectures, supporting scalable fabric designs commonly used in high-performance data centers. Its compatibility with high-speed switching infrastructure ensures that it can participate in non-blocking network topologies without introducing bottlenecks.

Power Efficiency and Operational Optimization

Energy-Aware Network Processing

Power efficiency is a key consideration in modern data centers, and the Dell 930PP RNDC incorporates energy-optimized processing features. The Broadcom 57404 controller dynamically adjusts power consumption based on traffic load, ensuring that energy usage remains efficient during both peak and idle conditions. This contributes to lower operational costs and improved sustainability metrics.

Thermal Design Power Optimization

The module is designed to operate within strict thermal design parameters, ensuring consistent performance without excessive heat generation. This is critical in dense server configurations where multiple compute nodes operate in close proximity.

Deployment Scenarios and Workload Optimization

High-Performance Computing Environments

In HPC clusters, the Dell 930PP RNDC supports rapid data exchange between compute nodes, enabling parallel processing workloads to scale effectively. Its high bandwidth and low latency characteristics ensure that inter-node communication does not become a performance bottleneck.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Workloads

AI and ML workloads require efficient data movement between storage and compute resources. The RNDC enhances pipeline efficiency by reducing network overhead and ensuring fast dataset distribution across training nodes. This accelerates model training cycles and improves overall throughput in AI infrastructures.

Enterprise Storage Networking Acceleration

For storage-heavy environments, the RNDC improves access speed to distributed storage systems by ensuring high-speed connectivity between compute nodes and storage arrays. This enhances application responsiveness and reduces latency in data retrieval operations.

Advanced Network Offload and Processing Features

Checksum and Segmentation Offloading

The Broadcom 57404 controller offloads computational tasks such as checksum calculation and TCP segmentation, reducing CPU workload and improving system efficiency. This allows servers to handle more concurrent sessions without performance degradation.

Interrupt Moderation and CPU Efficiency

By optimizing interrupt handling mechanisms, the RNDC reduces CPU interruptions caused by network traffic. This leads to smoother workload execution and improved system stability under high network load conditions.

Adaptive Traffic Management

Adaptive traffic handling ensures that network resources are allocated efficiently based on workload demand. This dynamic approach improves responsiveness and ensures consistent performance even during traffic spikes.