Dual- and quad-port Gigabit Ethernet server adapters designed for multi-core processors and optimized for virtualization. The Intel® Gigabit ET, ET2, and EF Multi-Port Server Adapters are Intel’s third generation of PCIe GbE network adapters. Built with the Intel® 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Controller, these new adapters showcase the next evolution in GbE networking features for the enterprise network and data center. These features include support for multi-core processors and optimization for server virtualization. Designed for Multi-Core Processors These dual- and quad-port adapters provide high-performing, multi-port Gigabit connectivity in a multi-core platform as well as in a virtualized environment. In a multi-core platform, the adapters support different technologies such as multiple queues, receive-side scaling, MSI-X, and Low Latency Interrupts, that help in accelerating the data across the platform, thereby improving application response times. The I/O technologies on a multi-core platform make use of the multiple queues and multiple interrupt vectors available on the network controller. These queues and interrupt vectors help in load balancing the data and interrupts amongst themselves in order to lower the load on the processors and improve overall system performance. For example, depending upon the latency sensitivity of the data, the low level latency interrupts feature can bypass the time interval for specific TCP ports or for flagged packets to give certain types of data streams the least amount of latency to the application.