Intel® I/O Acceleration Technology (Intel® I/OAT)

Intel® I/O Acceleration Technology is a new Intel platform network technology that accelerates, optimizes and seamlessly scales enterprise servers on Microsoft Windows Server* and Linux* operating systems.

Implementing Intel® I/OAT requires no change to your existing network configuration or existing security implementations.

System Requirements

This is a platform-level solution for data movement. Thus, several ingredients are necessary for a system to be Intel I/OAT capable:

Platform The platform must be based on the Intel® 5000 Series Chipset.
Operating System
  • Windows: Microsoft Windows Server 2003, with Service Pack 1 and the Scalable Network Pack.

  • Linux: SuSE SLES 10

Network Connectivity Hardware Intel I/OAT is available on specific models of Intel server adapters and network connections. If you have multiple network adapters in your system, Intel I/OAT will operate automatically on the compatible models, while non-compatible adapters will pass traffic normally.
  • Intel® PRO/1000 PT and PF Server Adapters

  • Network connections based on Intel® 82563EB and 82564EB controllers

Drivers and Connectivity Software Intel I/OAT becomes active when all required software support is loaded & enabled.
  • Windows: The IOATDMA driver and NDIS miniport driver version 9.3.31.0, or greater, must be installed.

  • Linux: The Intel ioatdma module must be loaded. (See the ioatdma documentation for details).

NOTE:  At least one Intel I/OAT-capable port must be enabled when your system starts up. If no Intel I/OAT-capable ports are enabled at system startup, the IOATDMA driver will not register with NDIS and Intel I/OAT-capable ports enabled after system startup will show no DMA activity. Enable an Intel I/OAT-capable port and reboot to resolve this issue.

Intel I/OAT Windows System Check Utility

The System Check Utility (ioatchk.exe) is a stand alone application that checks your system for Intel I/OAT compatibility. The utility can be found on the Intel support website and on the Intel LAN driver CD in the \PLATFORM\IOATDMA\WSO3 or \PLATFORM\IOATDMA\WS3XPx64 subdirectories.


Last modified on 2/23/06 8:09a Revision 8