Aprius technology enables a server to access high-performance, low-latency PCI Express (PCIe) devices over a single, converged Ethernet fabric. By tunneling PCIe over Ethernet, Aprius expands the ability of Ethernet to transport multiple protocols over a common network infrastructure, significantly simplifying server connectivity in the data center and greatly improving server I/O flexibility and efficiency. Servers can then use the common Ethernet interface to access devices that rely on the PCIe protocol and performance, including flash storage cards, PCIe SSD, GPU and co-processor resources required by their workloads.

Ethernet convergence (the ability to run multiple protocols over a single network), PCIe (the industry’s standard native I/O model) and I/O virtualization (IOV – the ability to share I/O resources across virtual machines in a server or across physical servers) are fundamental technology building blocks of next-generation server architectures. In combination, these technologies address the problem of provisioning network and storage resources to virtualized applications that can reside on any server in the data center.  Aprius technology provides the server access to any I/O resource, including IOV-capable cards, over a single high-bandwidth, low-latency Ethernet interface by utilizing the PCIe protocol common to all I/O cards today.

• Host interface provides the host with the capability of accessing PCIe devices attached to the data center Ethernet fabric.
   
• PCIe over Ethernet protocol provides native PCIe communications with native card and driver support over standard Ethernet or Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) at 10G, 40G and beyond.
   
• System interface provides Ethernet ports over which target systems connect their PCIe devices to the Ethernet fabric, while maintaining the native latency and performance advantages of PCIe. See solutions for examples of systems that the target logic enables.
   
• PCIe over Ethernet runs alongside and compliments other converged Ethernet protocols, such as FCoE and iSCSI.
   
• Seamless integration with the server Ethernet interface (NIC, CNA or LOM device) to enable complete convergence over a single interface.
   
• Compatible with a large ecosystem of existing and future PCIe I/O cards.
   
• Compatible with native drivers from I/O vendors, including support for PCIe I/O virtualization standards, SR-IOV and MR-IOV.