Emulex LPe12004/LPe12004-M8 Fiber Channel HBA Product Introduction

1. Product Overview

          The Emulex LPe12004 and LPe12004-M8 are dual port host bus adapters (HBAs) based on 8Gbps fiber channel (8GFC) technology, belonging to the Emulex fourth generation (Gen4) LightPulse series.

          LPe12004: Standard PCIe card, suitable for general server environments.

          LPe12004-M8: Optimized for IBM BladeCenter blade servers (M8 suffix indicates compatibility with IBM BladeCenter HS23/HS22 and other models).

          These two HBAs provide stable SAN connectivity, suitable for enterprise storage, virtualization, and critical business applications, especially for small and medium-sized data centers that require high-density connectivity.

2. Key characteristics

(1) High performance and compatibility

           8GFC full duplex bandwidth (theoretical 1.6GB/s), backward compatible with 4GFC/2GFC, ensuring seamless integration with old devices.

           Dual SFP+ports (LPe12004-M8 is designed with a dual port short block), supporting high-density connectivity requirements.

(2) Low latency and high efficiency

          Emulex's fourth generation LightPulse architecture optimizes I/O paths and reduces CPU overhead.

         Hardware acceleration T10 PI (Data Integrity Check) to prevent data corruption and improve storage reliability.

(3) High availability feature

         NPIV (N_Port ID Virtualization) support allows multiple virtual machines to share the same physical port.

          Automatic link recovery reduces business interruptions caused by network fluctuations.

(4) Management and Maintenance

          Support Emulex OneCommand Manager, providing centralized management and monitoring.

          Integrated LED status indicator light for quick troubleshooting.

3. Applicable scenarios

          Enterprise Storage Network (SAN): connects storage arrays such as EMC, NetApp, HPE, and supports critical applications such as databases (Oracle, SQL Server) and ERP.

 Virtualization environment: suitable for platforms such as VMware HANA, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, etc.

           Blade Server Optimization (LPe12004-M8): Designed specifically for IBM BladeCenter, suitable for high-density computing environments.

           Disaster recovery and backup: can be integrated with tape libraries (such as IBM TS series) or backup devices to ensure high data availability.

4. Technical specification comparison

          Project LPe12004 (Standard Edition) LPe12004-M8 (IBM BladeCenter Edition)

         Number of ports: Dual port (SFP+) Dual port (SFP+, short block)

         Host interface PCIe 2.0 x4 designed specifically for IBM BladeCenter M8 slot

        Fiber speed 8GFC/4GFC/2GFC (adaptive) 8GFC/4GFC/2GFC (adaptive)

        The protocol supports FCP-4 (SCSI), FC NVMe (optional) FCP-4 (SCSI), FC Tape (optional)

        The standard external dimensions include full height/low baffle options, optimized specifically for blade servers (short baffle

         Typical power consumption<12W<10W

5. Operating system support

         Windows Server（2008/2012）

         Linux（RHEL、SLES、Ubuntu）

        VMware ESXi（5.x/6.x）

        IBM AIX/HP-UX (requires specific drivers)