Glossary

A

ACT

(activity) Indicates that the port is up and running at 1-GbE speed.

B

BIOS

(basic input/output system) In this guide, the term BIOS refers to the BIOS software on the client or server system.

C

CFI

(canonical format indicator) A 1-bit field in the Ethernet header.

CR

(change request)

D

DHCP

(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Part of the application layer in the Internet protocol suite.

DMA

(direct memory access)

DNS

(domain name system) Translates human-readable domain names into numerical identifiers.

DR

(dynamic reconfiguration) Used to automatically reconfigure resources within a domain or from one domain to another domain.

E

EEE

(energy efficient Ethernet)

EEPROM

(electronically erasable programmable read-only memory)

EMI

(electromagnetic interference) The interference caused by the magnetic fields of electronic components.

F

FCC

(Federal Communications Commission)

FIFO

(first-in-first-out)

G

GB

(gigabyte)

GbE

(Gigabit Ethernet)

Gbps

(gigabits-per-second)

GT

(gigabit-transfer)

GTps

(GTs-per-second)

I

IEEE

(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Publishes standards that guide hardware and software development.

IP

(Internet Protocol) The principal communications protocol in the IP suite.

iSCSI

(Internet small computer system interface)

K

KB

(kilobytes)

L

LACP

(Link Aggregation Control Protocol) Enables several physical ports to be bundled into a single logical channel.

LAN

(local area network) Two or more devices connected to each other either physically or logically.

LED

(light-emitting diode)

LFM

(linear feet per minute)

LNK

(link) Indicates that the network link is up and running.

LOM

(LAN-on-motherboard) A LAN design.

LPA

(low profile adapter) Refers to the Sun Dual Port GbE PCIe 2.0 Low Profile Adapter, MMF, from Oracle.

M

MAC

(media access control) Enables the use of a unique address for each device on a network.

Mb

(megabit)

Mbps

(megabits-per-second)

MTU

(maximum transmission unit) The MTU (payload without the Ethernet header) affects how jumbo frames function.

N

NIC

(network interface card) Connects clients and servers to a LAN, WAN, or VLAN.

NIS

(network information service) Originally known as Yellow Pages, NIS is a protocol for distributed system configuration data.

P

PCI

(Peripheral Component Interconnect)

PCIe

(PCI Express)

PF

(page fault)

PHY

(physical layer) Controls the physical, analog signal access to a link.

PPA

(physical point of attachment) Used in constructing VLAN IDs.

PXE

(preboot execution environment) Enables clients to boot over a network interface, independent of the OS or other devices.

R

ROM

(read-only memory)

RPM

(RPM Package Manager)

RSS

(really simple syndication)

RX

(response) The automatic response mechanism used by Ethernet PAUSE frames.

S

SerDes

(serializer/deserializer) A mechanism used in high-speed connections to compensate for limited input or output.

SGMII

(Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface) A standard interface used to connect an Ethernet MAC-block to a PHY.

SPI

(serial peripheral interface) A type of flash memory.

SRC

(source code) The SRC RPM is used in Linux to build the driver kernel files.

SUSE

(Stanford University School of Education)

T

TCI

(tag control information) Part of the Ethernet header.

TCP

(Transmission Control Protocol) Part of the transport layer of the Internet protocol suite.

TCP/IP

(Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) In this guide, TCP/IP refers to the TCP/IP model, which is a framework for the IP suite.

TPID

(tag protocol identifier) Two bytes of information in an Ethernet frame.

TX

(generation) The automatic generation mechanism used by the Ethernet PAUSE frames.

U

UDP

(User Datagram Protocol) Part of the transport layer of the Internet protocol suite.

UDP/IP

(User Datagram Protocol and Internet Protocol) In this guide, UDP/IP refers to the relationship between the two protocols, which are on different layers of the IP suite.

UEFI

(Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) Manages the operations between hardware firmware and the OS during the boot time.

V

VID

(VLAN identifier) A 12-bit identifier in an Ethernet header.

VLAN

(virtual LAN) Splits the physical LAN into logical subparts. Multiple VLANs are supported on a single port, enabling a server with a single adapter to have a logical presence on multiple IP subnets.