Intel NHI350AM4 Quad-Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller I350-AM4 Halogen-Free Version PCIe 2.1 x4 BGA-256(17x17)

NHI350AM4 Product Overview

The Intel Ethernet Controller NHI350AM4 is a high-performance, low-power quad-port Gigabit Ethernet controller from Intel, part of the I350-AM4 series. Housed in a 256-pin PBGA (17×17mm) package, the NHI350AM4 is the halogen-free variant of the I350-AM4, offering identical functionality to the standard I350-AM4 but with packaging materials that meet stricter environmental standards such as IEC 61249-2-21. The NHI350AM4 integrates four fully independent Gigabit Ethernet MAC and PHY ports, along with four SGMII/SerDes interfaces for connecting external PHYs. The NHI350AM4 connects to the host system via a PCI Express v2.1 x4 (5 GT/s) interface, supporting 10/100/1000Mbps auto-negotiation. As a key member of Intel's I350 series Ethernet controller family, the NHI350AM4 is specifically designed to meet the high-density, high-reliability Gigabit networking demands of enterprise servers, data centers, and network infrastructure.

NHI350AM4 Key Features

The NHI350AM4 embodies Intel's deep expertise in high-performance networking through its robust hardware architecture and feature set. It features a PCI Express v2.1 (PCIe 2.1) x4/x2/x1 host interface supporting both 2.5 GT/s and 5 GT/s transfer rates. The NHI350AM4 offers four fully integrated Gigabit Ethernet MAC and PHY ports, supporting quad-port 1000BASE-T copper or via SGMII/SerDes interfaces for fiber (1000BASE-SX/LX) and backplane (1000BASE-KX/BX) applications. The NHI350AM4 supports PCI-SIG SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization) , allowing a physical PCIe device to present itself as multiple Virtual Functions (VFs) for direct VM access without Hypervisor software switching. It also supports VMDq (Virtual Machine Device Queues) for hardware-based packet sorting to the correct VM. The NHI350AM4 supports UDP, TCP, and IP checksum offload, UDP and TCP Transmit Segmentation Offload (TSO) , and other performance enhancements. For power efficiency, the NHI350AM4 supports IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) , reducing power consumption by up to 50% during low network activity. The NHI350AM4 operates at 3.3V with a temperature range of -10℃ to 85℃, consuming approximately 2.8W in dual-port mode and 4.2W in quad-port mode. The NHI350AM4 also supports NC-SI or SMBus manageability connections, IEEE 1149.6 JTAG, programmable LED indicators, VLAN filtering, IEEE 1588 precision time synchronization, fiber support, and wake-on-LAN functions.

NHI350AM4 Applications

With its exceptional quad-port density, flexible interface configuration, and powerful virtualization features, the NHI350AM4 is widely deployed in demanding networking environments. As a core controller, the NHI350AM4 is an ideal component for quad-port Gigabit Ethernet server adapters, providing high-density Gigabit connectivity for rack servers, pedestal servers, and blade servers. The NHI350AM4 is also suitable for LAN on Motherboard (LOM) or mezzanine card designs. With its robust SR-IOV and VMDq support, the NHI350AM4 is particularly well-suited for virtualized data centers and cloud computing environments, enabling high-performance VM network acceleration and virtual network functions (VNFs). Additionally, the NHI350AM4 excels in embedded applications such as switch add-on cards and network appliances. The NHI350AM4 is especially suitable for network equipment designs targeting the EU market due to its halogen-free environmental compliance.

NHI350AM4 Key Advantages

The NHI350AM4 stands out as a mature, commercially available quad-port Gigabit Ethernet controller that strikes an excellent balance between high performance, high integration, and environmental compliance. Housed in a 256-pin PBGA (17×17mm) package and integrating four complete Gigabit MAC and PHY ports on a single chip, the NHI350AM4 delivers high-density quad-port networking while maintaining ultra-low power consumption (only 4.2W in quad-port mode) . The NHI350AM4 supports a wide operating temperature range of -10℃ to 85℃, making it suitable for diverse deployment environments. The NHI350AM4 is the halogen-free variant of the I350-AM4, compliant with IEC 61249-2-21 and other international environmental standards, making it an ideal choice for EU exports. The NHI350AM4 is available in both Tray (spec code SLJ3Z) and Tape & Reel (spec code SLJ2Z) packaging, with Tape & Reel being ideal for high-volume automated SMT assembly. Intel provides comprehensive driver support for the NHI350AM4 across mainstream operating systems including Windows Server, Linux (RHEL, SLES, Ubuntu), FreeBSD, and VMware ESXi. The NHI350AM4 offers system integrators and OEMs a highly competitive quad-port Gigabit Ethernet connectivity solution, making it the core chip of choice for building next-generation high-speed network infrastructure.

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FAQs:

1 What is the NHi350AM4 chip
It is an Intel E810 series high speed Ethernet network controller chip designed for data center servers enterprise networks and high performance computing clusters requiring fast interconnects.

2 What is NHI350AM4  main network interface speed
NHI350AM4 supports highly flexible high speed Ethernet rates and can be configured to support 10Gbps 25Gbps or even 100Gbps transmission to meet the high bandwidth requirements of hyper scale data centers and AI computing clusters.

3 What package and host interface does NHI350AM4 use
It adopts a high density BGA ball grid array package. The host interface uses the PCI Express 4.0 high speed bus which supports up to x8 or x16 lane configurations for extremely high data throughput.

4 What are the operating voltage and temperature ranges
It uses a multi voltage domain design with independent core and I/O power supplies. The temperature range meets industrial standards typically from minus 40 degrees Celsius to plus 85 degrees Celsius.

5 What application scenarios is NHI350AM4 suitable for
It is widely used in data center server network interface cards high speed network switches high performance computing nodes distributed storage systems and industrial network devices with strict bandwidth and latency requirements.

6 What built in hardware acceleration features does NHI350AM4 have
It features powerful packet processing engines that support RSS Receive Side Scaling VMDq Virtual Machine Device Queues packet classification and filtering network tunneling protocol offload and checksum offloading to effectively offload the host CPU.

7 Does NHI350AM4 support Remote Direct Memory Access
Yes it supports RDMA technologies including RoCEv2 and iWARP enabling high throughput low latency zero copy data transfers and significantly improving data exchange efficiency in HPC clusters.

8 What are the power consumption and cooling requirements
Power consumption is significant during full speed high load operation. A large thermal heatsink must be applied to the chip surface and active forced air cooling through system airflow channels is required to ensure long term stable operation.

9 What are the PCB design requirements for the BGA package
Due to the extremely high integration and numerous high speed signals the PCB must utilize high layer count boards with strict impedance matching and length control for PCIe 4.0 and Ethernet differential traces and sufficient low ESR decoupling capacitors must be placed near the power supply pins.

10 What external components are needed to use NHI350AM4 chip
It typically requires external high speed Ethernet PHY transceiver chips QSFP-DD or QSFP28 optical module interfaces a high precision clock generator and power management circuitry for high current supply to build a complete network physical port.