Intel E10G42BFSR X520-SR2 10Gbps PCIe 2.0 x8 2 x LC network card

Dual-port 10 GbE server adapter

The Intel E10G42BFSR X520-SR2 is a dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter designed for servers that require high-throughput, low-latency fibre connections. It plugs into a PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot and presents two LC connectors for short-range multimode fibre links. The card supports iSCSI remote boot, enabling diskless deployment in converged infrastructure environments. Virtualisation features such as SR-IOV and VMDq allow efficient I/O sharing across multiple virtual machines.

PCIe 2.0 x8 bandwidth ceiling

The adapter uses a PCI Express 2.0 x8 interface, which caps theoretical throughput at the lane speed of that generation. In practice this limits sustained bidirectional traffic to the bandwidth available on eight Gen 2 lanes, so the card cannot exceed the throughput envelope of the slot it occupies. Servers restricted to PCIe 2.0 will not realise the full wire-rate potential of dual 10 GbE ports under heavy simultaneous load. The interface also determines compatibility with older platforms that lack newer slot generations.

Two LC ports for short-range fibre

Dual LC connectors provide redundant or aggregated 10 GbE links over multimode fibre up to the distances supported by the SR optic standard. The card comfortably handles typical virtualisation, storage and high-performance computing workloads that fit within a single 10 GbE stream per port. It runs out of headroom when applications demand sustained line-rate traffic on both ports simultaneously beyond the PCIe 2.0 x8 ceiling or when long-reach single-mode fibre is required.