Sun Microsystems Sun PCI High Speed Quad Port Serial Interface Adapter 819-1207-11 - Manual (Page 21)

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C H A P T E R
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Product Overview
This chapter includes the following topics:
■ “Product Description” on page 1
■ “Features” on page 2
■ “Hardware and Software Requirements” on page 3
Product Description
The Sun PCI High Speed Quad Port Serial Interface adapter is high-speed serial
interface (HSI) adapter for PCI applications and is referred to as the SunHSI/U
adapter in this manual. The adapter offers comprehensive hot-plug compatibility
with Solstice WAN software packages available through Sun. The SunHSI software
is a transparent interface on the SunHSI/U adapter, providing a compliant
environment for SunLink WAN packages operating on similar Sun communication
modules.
The SunHSI/U adapter (see FIGURE 1-1 ) is an intelligent, four-port communication
controller with onboard CPU and memory dedicated to WAN communication
functions. This architecture operates much more efficiently at high data rates than
unintelligent WAN modules. Onboard intelligence allows the workstation or server to
be off-loaded from many of the low-level communication tasks that it must perform
when there is no native intelligence on the controller.