W1GCR Dell 2 Ports 10gbase-t Converged Network Adapter

Dell W1GCR 2-Port 10GBase-T Converged Network Adapter

High-Performance Server Networking Solution

The Dell W1GCR Broadcom 57810s is a dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Converged Network Adapter designed to deliver high-speed, reliable, and efficient network connectivity for enterprise servers. Built for demanding data center environments, it ensures smooth data transmission and optimized server performance.

Key Product Highlights

• Brand: Dell
• Part Number / SKU: W1GCR
• Product Category: Network Adapter
• Sub-Type: 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Technical Specifications of Dell W1GCR Adapter

• Chipset / Line: Broadcom
• Card Type: Full-height expansion card
• Host Interface: PCI Express 2.0 x8
• Supported Environment: Server systems
• Network Standard: 10GBase-T (10 Gigabit Ethernet over twisted pair)
• Maximum Data Transfer Rate: Up to 10 Gbit/s
• Media Support: Twisted Pair cabling

Ports and Connectivity Features

• Total Ethernet Ports: 2
• LAN Port Type: RJ-45 / SFP / SFP+
• Expansion Slot Type: SFP+ compatible interface
• Form Factor: Plug-in module design

Compatibility and System Integration

• Dell PowerEdge R220
• Server-class systems supporting PCIe 2.0 x8 slots

Dell W1GCR Broadcom 2 Ports Converged Network Adapter 

The Dell W1GCR Broadcom 57810s 2 Ports 10GBASE-T Converged Network Adapter represents a high-performance, enterprise-grade networking solution designed for modern data centers, virtualization environments, and high-throughput server infrastructures. This adapter delivers reliable dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity over copper cabling, making it a versatile choice for scalable enterprise deployments.

As a converged network adapter (CNA), the Dell W1GCR integrates multiple networking functionalities into a single hardware unit, reducing complexity while increasing efficiency in storage, virtualization, and data communication workloads. It is particularly optimized for 10GBASE-T environments where cost-effective copper cabling is preferred over fiber-based SFP+ infrastructure.

Architecture and Engineering of Broadcom 57810s Controller

Advanced ASIC Design

At the core of the Dell W1GCR adapter lies the Broadcom 57810s controller, an advanced application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) engineered for high-bandwidth, low-latency networking operations. This controller is designed to handle multiple traffic types simultaneously, including LAN traffic, storage traffic, and virtual machine data streams, without performance degradation.

The architecture supports full-duplex 10GbE operation on both ports, enabling aggregated bandwidth of up to 20Gbps. The controller also incorporates hardware offloading capabilities that reduce CPU overhead and improve server efficiency.

Hardware Offload Capabilities

The Broadcom 57810s ASIC provides extensive hardware offloading features such as TCP segmentation offload (TSO), large receive offload (LRO), and checksum offloading. These features significantly reduce the burden on host CPUs, allowing systems to allocate more resources to application processing rather than packet handling.

Enhanced Network Processing Efficiency

By offloading repetitive network tasks to the adapter itself, the system achieves lower latency and higher throughput consistency, particularly in virtualized environments where multiple virtual machines share network resources.

10GBASE-T Technology in Enterprise Networking

Understanding 10GBASE-T Standards

10GBASE-T is a standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair copper cabling (typically Cat6a or Cat7). The Dell W1GCR adapter leverages this standard to provide high-speed connectivity while maintaining compatibility with existing copper network infrastructure.

This makes it an ideal upgrade path for enterprises transitioning from 1GbE to 10GbE without the need for costly fiber rewiring. The use of RJ45 connectors further enhances deployment flexibility.

Backward Compatibility and Auto-Negotiation

The adapter supports auto-negotiation with lower speeds such as 1GbE and 100MbE, ensuring seamless integration into mixed-speed network environments. This flexibility allows gradual infrastructure upgrades without service disruption.

Power Efficiency in Copper-Based 10GbE

Although 10GBASE-T is traditionally more power-intensive than fiber alternatives, the Broadcom 57810s chipset includes energy-efficient Ethernet (EEE) support that dynamically reduces power consumption during periods of low network activity.

Converged Network Adapter Functionality

Unified Networking and Storage Traffic

As a converged network adapter, the Dell W1GCR supports both traditional Ethernet traffic and storage protocols such as iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). This convergence reduces the need for separate host bus adapters (HBAs) and network interface cards (NICs), simplifying server architecture.

Benefits of Convergence in Data Centers

Converging storage and network traffic onto a single adapter reduces hardware costs, lowers power consumption, and simplifies cable management. This is especially beneficial in large-scale data centers where space and energy efficiency are critical.

Reduced Hardware Footprint

By combining multiple networking roles into one adapter, enterprises can reduce the number of PCIe slots required per server, allowing for more efficient hardware utilization.

Improved Manageability

Unified management of storage and network traffic reduces administrative overhead and simplifies troubleshooting, monitoring, and configuration tasks.

Dual-Port Design and Bandwidth Optimization

Load Balancing Capabilities

The dual-port configuration of the Dell W1GCR adapter allows for advanced load balancing techniques. Traffic can be distributed across both ports to maximize throughput and ensure redundancy in case of port failure.

High Availability and Failover

In mission-critical environments, failover support ensures continuous network availability. If one port fails, the second port automatically takes over without interrupting active sessions.

Link Aggregation Support

The adapter supports link aggregation (LACP), enabling administrators to combine both ports into a single logical channel for increased bandwidth and resilience.

Virtualization and Cloud Computing Optimization

Support for Virtual Machine Environments

The Dell W1GCR adapter is optimized for virtualized infrastructures such as VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM-based environments. It supports multiple virtual NICs (vNICs), allowing efficient traffic segmentation for virtual machines.

Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)

SR-IOV support allows the physical network adapter to be partitioned into multiple virtual functions, enabling near-native network performance for virtual machines while reducing hypervisor overhead.

Improved VM Density

With SR-IOV and advanced offloading, servers can host a higher number of virtual machines without experiencing network bottlenecks, improving overall infrastructure efficiency.

Cloud Data Center Compatibility

The adapter is widely used in private cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructures due to its scalability and compatibility with orchestration platforms such as OpenStack and VMware vSphere.

Storage Protocol Support and Enterprise Integration

iSCSI Acceleration

The Dell W1GCR supports iSCSI offload, enabling storage traffic to bypass the CPU and be processed directly by the adapter. This reduces latency and improves storage access performance.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

FCoE capability allows traditional Fibre Channel storage networks to be transported over Ethernet infrastructure, eliminating the need for separate storage cabling systems.

Storage Area Network Optimization

By integrating storage protocols into the same adapter, organizations can simplify SAN architecture while maintaining high-performance storage connectivity.

Compatibility with Server Platforms

Enterprise Server Integration

The Dell W1GCR adapter is designed for seamless integration into Dell PowerEdge servers and other enterprise-class hardware platforms that support PCIe-based network expansion cards.

Operating System Support

It supports major operating systems including Windows Server, Linux distributions (such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu Server, and SUSE Linux Enterprise), and virtualization hypervisors.

Driver and Firmware Management

Regular driver updates and firmware optimizations ensure compatibility with evolving enterprise workloads and security requirements.