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Intel shares network speedup technology

Outside companies can now use QuickData, which previously only worked with servers using Intel's own network chips and cards.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Stephen Shankland
Intel has begun letting outside companies use a technology to speed a server's network communications, the company announced Tuesday, and several are already planning to take advantage of the offer.

The technology, called QuickData, is a component of Intel's broader Input/Output Acceleration Technology effort to modernize server handling of network traffic. QuickData speeds standard networking by putting networked data directly into memory, bypassing stages in which the processor is burdened as it processes all the packets of transmitted data.

Previously, QuickData only worked with servers using Intel's own network chips and cards. But now others may use the technology, the chip maker announced at its Intel Developer Forum in Taiwan.

Microsoft, IBM and Fujitsu-Siemens endorsed the move, the companies said; network chip rival Broadcom is evaluating ways it can use QuickData; and VMware and Mellanox plan to use it.

Intel and AMD are in something of a struggle to one-up each other when it comes to open interfaces. AMD began earlier this year with "Torrenza," which lets others build chips that plug into HyperTransport high-speed communications system within a computer.

Intel countered with "Geneseo," joining with IBM in September in a plan to boost traditional PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect).