Intel next week will tap the Interop trade show in Las Vegas for a sneak preview of a powerful new data center switch reference platform, expected to be released this fall. The Seacliff Trail reference platform will combine Intel Ethernet Switch FM6000 technology (which Intel attained via the Fulcrum Microsystems acquisition) with the Intel 82599 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller and a Crystal Forest-based packet processing and control plane subsystem.

The platform has been designed for top-of-rack data center applications. The 1RU-high switch has 48 SFP+ 10GbE ports and four QSFP 40GbE ports and delivers less than 400ns L3 latency, according to Intel. It supports all of the critical data center protocols and services.

Also in Intel's booth there will be a demo of low latency network address translation (NAT). The Intel Ethernet Switch FM6000 FlexPipe frame processing pipeline provides NAT services with very low latency, which is essential in data center networks.

Intel also contributed its Barcelona 10GbE TOR switch reference platform for an SDN demo that is part of the Interop Labs (iLabs). The demo shows how Barcelona performs when it is controlled by an OpenFlow software control plane. This is similar to the demo Intel had in its booth at the recent Open Network Summit, but this time the switch is in a multivendor environment.

Interop runs from May 8-10 in Las Vegas, and is probably the premier enterprise networking convention today.