VK88G Dell E810 25GbE SFP28 X 2 Quad Port RDMA Support PCIe Adapter

Overview of Dell VK88G Quad Port PCIe Network Adapter

The Dell VK88G E810 Intel-based network interface card is a high-performance quad-port Ethernet adapter designed for enterprise data centers. This PCI Express full-height adapter delivers advanced 10GbE and 25GbE connectivity through SFP28 interfaces, making it ideal for scalable, high-speed networking environments, virtualization workloads, and cloud infrastructure.

Manufacturer and Product Identification

Basic Product Information

• Manufacturer: Dell
• Part Number / SKU: VK88G
• Product Category: Network Adapter / NIC (Network Interface Card)
• Port Type: Quad-Port High-Speed Ethernet Adapter

Technical Specifications

Form Factor and Physical Design

• Full-height plug-in PCIe expansion card
• Designed for enterprise server chassis compatibility

Interface and Bus Architecture

• PCI Express 4.0 x16 interface
• Compatible with PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 slots
• Optimized for high-bandwidth server environments

Network Connectivity Standards

• 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE)
• 25 Gigabit Ethernet (25GbE)
• Gigabit Ethernet backward compatibility

Data Link and Transport Protocol Support

• iSCSI for storage networking
• iWARP for RDMA over TCP/IP
• NFS support for network file systems
• RoCE v2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet)

Port Configuration and Connectivity

Ethernet Port Layout

• Quad-port design for high-density connectivity
• SFP28 interface support for fiber connectivity
• 2 x 1GbE / 10GbE / 25GbE flexible SFP28 ports

Connectivity Technology

• Wired Ethernet networking solution
• High-speed optical or DAC cable support via SFP28 modules

Advanced Features and Performance Enhancements

Virtualization and Offloading Technologies

• SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization)
• VMDq (Virtual Machine Device Queues)
• DDIO (Data Direct I/O Technology)
• Intelligent hardware offloads for reduced CPU load

RDMA and High-Speed Processing

• RDMA support for low-latency communication
• RoCE v2 for optimized data center performance
• iWARP compatibility for efficient networking

Traffic Management and Optimization

• On-chip Quality of Service (QoS)
• Flexible Port Partitioning (FPP)
• Advanced traffic steering and balancing

Typical Use Cases

• Enterprise data center networking infrastructure
• Cloud computing and virtualization platforms
• High-performance storage networks (SAN/NAS)
• AI, HPC, and workload-intensive environments
• Software-defined networking (SDN) deployments

Key Highlights of Dell VK88G Network Adapter

• High-speed 10/25 Gigabit Ethernet support for modern data centers
• Quad-port architecture for enhanced bandwidth and redundancy
• PCIe Gen4 x16 interface for maximum throughput efficiency
• Advanced RDMA and virtualization capabilities
• Optimized for cloud computing, virtualization, and storage networks

Dell VK88G E810 Intel Quad Port SFP28 PCIe Full Height Adapter

The Dell VK88G E810 Intel Quad Port 10/25GbE SFP28 PCIe Full Height Adapter is a high-performance enterprise-grade network interface card (NIC) designed to deliver ultra-low latency, high throughput, and exceptional scalability for modern data center environments. Built on the advanced Intel® Ethernet E810 controller architecture, this adapter provides four high-speed SFP28 ports capable of supporting both 10GbE and 25GbE connectivity, making it ideal for cloud computing, virtualization, storage networking, and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. This adapter is optimized for mission-critical infrastructure where speed, reliability, and efficiency are essential.

Next-Generation Intel E810 Network Architecture

Intel Ethernet Controller E810 Foundation

At the core of the Dell VK88G adapter is the powerful Ethernet Controller E810, engineered for next-generation data center networking demands. The E810 architecture introduces advanced packet processing capabilities, flexible port partitioning, and enhanced virtualization features that significantly improve network performance under heavy workloads. This controller supports both 10GbE and 25GbE speeds per port, allowing organizations to scale bandwidth dynamically based on application requirements.

Quad-Port High-Density Connectivity

The quad-port design of the Dell VK88G E810 adapter enables high-density network configurations, reducing the number of required NICs per server while increasing total bandwidth availability. This design is particularly beneficial in rack-scale deployments where space optimization and cable management efficiency are critical. Each SFP28 port can operate independently or be bonded for redundancy and load balancing, offering flexible deployment options for enterprise and hyperscale environments.

Benefits of Quad-Port Architecture

The four independent ports provide improved network segmentation, enabling administrators to isolate traffic types such as storage, management, and application workloads. This separation enhances security, reduces congestion, and improves Quality of Service (QoS) across distributed systems.

High-Speed 10/25GbE SFP28 Technology

SFP28 Optical and DAC Support

The Dell VK88G adapter utilizes SFP28 transceiver technology, supporting both optical fiber and direct attach copper (DAC) cables. This flexibility allows seamless integration into existing data center infrastructure without requiring major hardware overhauls. The ability to switch between 10GbE and 25GbE modes ensures compatibility with legacy systems while providing a clear upgrade path for future expansion.

Scalability and Future-Proof Networking

Organizations can deploy the adapter at 10GbE speeds initially and upgrade to 25GbE as demand increases, protecting their investment and ensuring long-term scalability. This makes the adapter suitable for evolving cloud environments where bandwidth requirements continuously grow.

PCIe Interface and System Integration

High-Bandwidth PCIe Connectivity

The Dell VK88G E810 adapter uses a PCI Express interface designed for high-throughput data transfer between the network controller and the host system. The PCIe architecture ensures minimal bottlenecks, enabling full utilization of the 25GbE bandwidth across all ports. This is critical for latency-sensitive applications such as financial trading platforms, virtualization clusters, and real-time analytics systems.

Full Height Form Factor Design

Designed in a full-height PCIe form factor, the adapter is compatible with enterprise rack servers and storage systems that require robust thermal handling and stable physical integration. This ensures long-term reliability even under continuous high-load conditions.

Virtualization and Cloud-Optimized Features

SR-IOV and Virtual Function Support

The adapter supports Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), enabling efficient distribution of network resources across multiple virtual machines. Each physical port can be divided into multiple virtual functions, improving performance isolation and reducing CPU overhead in virtualized environments such as VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM-based infrastructures.

Optimized for Software-Defined Data Centers

In software-defined data centers (SDDC), the Dell VK88G E810 adapter plays a crucial role in enabling dynamic workload mobility and distributed networking. Its virtualization capabilities ensure consistent performance regardless of VM density or workload fluctuations.

Advanced Data Processing Capabilities

Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) Acceleration

The adapter is compatible with Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), allowing applications to bypass kernel-level processing and achieve significantly reduced latency. This is essential for network function virtualization (NFV), packet inspection systems, and real-time data analytics.

RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE)

Support for RDMA over Converged Ethernet enables direct memory access between systems without involving CPU resources, reducing latency and increasing throughput. This is particularly beneficial in storage clusters and high-performance computing environments where rapid data exchange is required.

Enterprise Use Cases and Deployment Scenarios

Cloud Data Centers

The Dell VK88G E810 adapter is widely used in cloud data centers where scalability and high throughput are essential. It supports elastic workloads, containerized applications, and distributed microservices architectures that demand consistent network performance.

High-Performance Computing (HPC)

In HPC environments, the adapter delivers the bandwidth required for parallel computing, simulation workloads, and scientific research applications. Its low-latency design ensures efficient communication between compute nodes in clustered systems.

Enterprise Storage Networking

Storage area networks (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) systems benefit from the adapter’s high-speed connectivity and RDMA support. This improves data replication, backup operations, and distributed storage performance.

Big Data and Analytics Platforms

Big data environments rely heavily on fast data ingestion and processing. The Dell VK88G adapter enhances performance for Hadoop, Spark, and real-time analytics platforms by reducing network bottlenecks.

Performance Optimization and Reliability Features

Load Balancing and Failover Support

The quad-port architecture allows advanced load balancing and failover configurations. In the event of a port failure, traffic is automatically rerouted to maintain uninterrupted network service.

Traffic Prioritization and QoS

Quality of Service (QoS) features allow administrators to prioritize critical workloads such as storage replication or database transactions over less sensitive traffic. This ensures optimal utilization of available bandwidth.

Jumbo Frame and Offloading Capabilities

Support for jumbo frames reduces CPU overhead and improves efficiency for large data transfers. Hardware offloading features further enhance performance by delegating tasks such as checksum calculations and segmentation to the NIC itself.