RTL8127 10Gbps NIC (<2 Watt)

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It's been two years since Realtek showed off its 5 Gbps Ethernet chips at Computex and at the time, they hinted at a 10 Gbps chip. This year, the company was showing off a wide range of 10 Gbps Ethernet chips on the show, ranging from a standard consumer solution, to server chips and native USB variants. The base chip is the RTL8127, which offers the full range of speeds from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps, with a sub 2 Watt power consumption. This is followed by the RTL8127AP intended for servers, as it has full remote management support via DASH 1.2 support. Both chips sport a PCIe 4.0 x1 host interface, which for better or worse limits compatibility to more modern systems.

Next up is the fibre only RTL8127ATF, although it doesn't support 10/100 Mbps speeds, but it has a lower power consumption at just over 1 Watt. This is followed by the RTL8127AT, which is limited to the same speeds as the fibre only SKU, but it's a standard copper NIC. What sets these two SKUs apart from the previous two, is that they support PCIe Gen 3 x2 or PCIe Gen 4 x1 and they actually have a physical PCIe x2 interface, which limits compatibility with some motherboards as an add-card. Finally we have the RTL8159, which is Realtek's USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 10 Gbps chip, which again covers the full range of speed from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps. Realtek had several mockups of customer products on display, but final products might not look exactly like the ones shown.

In addition to the Ethernet controllers, Realtek also had a 10 Gbps Ethernet PHY on display, which should make its way into some more affordable and consumer friendly 10 Gbps switches, as this has been a missing link when it comes to making more affordable 10 Gbps switches. It might also end up in some future routers and cable modems, since it's likely to be cheaper than any competing solutions out there today. The PHY will also find its way into SFP+ to RJ45 copper adapters of various types, with a couple of examples below.

lthough we weren't given any pricing, the person we talked to hinted at it being less than double the price of Realtek's current 5 Gbps chips, which again are less than double the price of its 2.5 Gbps chips. As far as final consumer pricing goes, it's very likely that we'll see 10 Gbps network cards for less than $50, maybe even less. We were also informed that there will be several motherboards launching later this year with the RTL8127 and we should see network cards arrive sometime in Q4 this year in retail.