QLogic announced the latest addition to its 3200 Series Ethernet adapter portfolio. The new QLE3242-R is a dual-port 10GB solution that uses twisted pair cabling to convey transmissions: it’s the first of its kind belonging to the 3200 Series line-up, which before only included support for R optics, LR optics and twinax copper.

The new adapter is based on the still-in-development 10GBASE-T standard and is backward compatible with Gigabit Ethernet switch ports, which means less work for enterprises migrating to 10GbE. The QLE3242-R supports NIC partitioning via VMflex, and gives admins the ability to allocate bandwidth to individual virtual partitions – there can be up to four per physical port.

“Based on our widely adopted, battle-tested networking stack, QLogic 10GbE adapters make it easy for customers to migrate to next-generation converged enterprises, virtualized data centers and cloud computing environments,” said Amit Vashi, vice president, marketing, Host Solutions Group, QLogic. “The 100 meter range and backward compatibility features of our new 10GBASE-T adapter make it a highly compelling option for organizations that want to leverage their 1GbE RJ45 switch investments and transition easily to 10GbE networks at their own pace.”

The emerging 10GBASE-T standard’s key advantages include a 1000 meter reach, more than what you’ll get with direct-attach copper and optic alternatives. QLogic also cites the added perk of reduced latency in the range of two to four microseconds.

QLogic’s bottom line has been hit by weakened demand in the networking industry, but the company is still going strong on the technology front.  Mt. Rainier is one of the latest advancements for QLogic – the SAN adapter makes the flash that resides within servers available to the network.  Cameron Brett, QLogic’s director of solutions marketing, discussed the solution at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 with John Furrier and Dave Vellante, which you can see here.