The Most Common Shortcut That Costs More Than the NIC Itself
Order a server with “onboard networking” and you get two 1GbE ports. That was fine in 2015 when your storage array was SAS HDDs and your backup target was a tape library down the hall. In 2026, with 25GbE switches in every rack and NVMe storage pushing 6 GB/s per drive, 1GbE onboard networking is a bottleneck that costs you hours of backup windows and minutes of VM migration time — every day, for years, across every server in the fleet.
The Broadcom 57416 is a dual-port 10GBASE-T adapter that upgrades any server’s networking from 1GbE to 10GbE without changing cables — it uses standard RJ45 CAT6a/7 copper, the same cable you already have. No SFP+ transceivers to buy, no fiber to run, no switch port upgrades beyond the switch itself supporting 10GBASE-T.
Specifiche tecniche
| Parametro | Specifica |
|---|---|
| chipset | Broadcom BCM57416 NetXtreme-E Series |
| Porti | 2x 10GBASE-T (RJ45), auto-negotiating 10GbE / 5Trasportare / 2.5Trasportare / 1Trasportare / 100MbE |
| NBASE-T Support | Yes — 10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M auto-negotiation on CAT5e/6/6a/7 copper |
| Host Interface | PCIe 3.0 x8 (64 Gb/s — sufficient for 2x 10GbE = 20 Gb/s bidirectional) |
| RDMA | RoCE v2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) |
| Offloads | TCO (TCP Offload Engine), iSCSI offload, FCoE offload, NVMe-oF offload |
| SR-IOV | Fino a 128 virtual functions per port |
| NPAR | NIC Partitioning — up to 4 physical functions per port (8 totale) |
| VXLAN / NVGRE / Geneve | Stateless offload for all three tunnel protocols |
| DCB / PFC / ETS | Data Center Bridging for lossless Ethernet (RoCE) |
| Energia | ~12W typical (both ports active, 10Trasportare) |
| Fattore di forma | Low-profile PCIe, full-height bracket included |
| Physical | 167 X 69 mm (standard LP card) |
| Cavo | CAT6a (up to 100m at 10GbE), CAT6 (up to 55m at 10GbE), CAT5e (up to 45m for NBASE-T 5G/2.5G) |
| Supporto del sistema operativo | VMware ESXi 7.0+, 8.0+ | Windows Server 2019/2022/2025 | RHEL 8.6+/9.x | SLES 15 SP4+ | Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 |
| Driver | In-box for ESXi 7.0 U3+, Windows Server 2019+, REL 8.6+, Ubuntu 20.04+ |
| Compatible Platforms | All Dell PowerEdge, xFusion, Lenovo servers with PCIe 3.0 x8+ slot |
| Garanzia | 3-year limited (with server) |
10GBASE-T vs SFP+ — When Copper Wins
| Factor | 10GBASE-T (RJ45, Broadcom 57416) | SFP+ (fiber or DAC) |
|---|---|---|
| Cable cost | 0 (existing CAT6a infrastructure) | $25-50 per SFP+ DAC (3-5M) O $100+ for optics + fiber |
| Distance (no media converter) | 100M (CAT6a), 55M (CAT6) | DAC: 5-7M. Fiber: up to 10km |
| Latency | ~2 microseconds (10GBASE-T PHY) | < 1 microsecond (SFP+ DAC) / ~1 microsecond (fiber optic) |
| Power per port | ~5-6W (10GBASE-T PHY) | ~1-2W (SFP+ DAC) |
| Auto-negotiation | Yes — falls back to 5G/2.5G/1G on older cable | No — fixed speed, requires matching transceiver |
| Best for | In-rack, existing copper infrastructure, gradual 1G→10G migration | Long-distance, low-latency, fiber-only environments |
The Migration Path From 1GbE to 10GbE
The 57416’s NBASE-T auto-negotiation makes it the only adapter that lets you migrate incrementally. Plug it into a CAT5e cable today and it runs at 2.5G or 5G — faster than 1GbE without touching the cable plant. When you upgrade the switch and cable to CAT6a, the same adapter auto-negotiates to 10GbE. No truck roll, no recabling, no downtime beyond a reboot. For data centers with hundreds of servers and mixed-age cabling, this capability alone justifies the adapter cost.
Source Through Xincuan
We supply Broadcom 57416 adapters pre-installed in Dell and xFusion servers, or as retrofit kits. Factory-direct pricing, 3-anno di garanzia, global shipping.
Server Xincuan | Fornitore di hardware per server aziendali











