Bigfoot Network's Killer Xeno network interface cards are designed for online gamers

Summary: Bigfoot Networks targeted a niche, but growing, market segment when it released its network interface card (NIC) for gamers, appropriately called Killer, a couple of years back. Since then, gamers' demands for features like lag-free chatting have only increased, though so, too, has networking technology.

By Sean Portnoy for SOHO Networking | March 23, 2009 -- 17:35 GMT (10:35 PDT)

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Bigfoot Networks targeted a niche, but growing, market segment when it released its network interface card (NIC) for gamers, appropriately called Killer, a couple of years back. Since then, gamers' demands for features like lag-free chatting have only increased, though so, too, has networking technology. So Bigfoot today announced at the Game Developers Conference the next generation of, erm, Killer: the Killer Xeno series.

Xeno comes in two flavors: Pro and Ultra, with the biggest difference between the two being that Ultra has twice the onboard memory (256MB) than the Pro. Both featured a new networking processor as well as integrated audio to help improve the in-game chatting experience. They also sport a new form factor, now requiring an open PCI Express slot whereas the first-generation Killer cards needed only a PCI slot. Along with improved bandwidth control, the additional memory and new interface (and its superior throughput) promise reduced latency that can impact both game play and real-time trash talking.

The Xeno Pro is slated to cost $129.99 and be available from gaming PC company (well, subsidiary of Dell) Alienware and component maker EVGA in April. The Xeno Ultra, which also features an on-card LED display for call, game, and network info, will be on sale the following month from online tech retailers. For you hardcore fraggers, is this add-on worth the price? Let us know in the TalkBack section.

Topics: Mobility, Networking

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Talkback

4 comments

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Killer Pro - Sigh

Ok, so, don't see any comments on taking care of their existing customer base with the functionality they've been promising with FnApps. Are they telling their customers they paid $159.00 to $200+ to be beta testers prepping for an affordable, feature rich product and the current product is going the way of the 8 track??

binarypc

23 March, 2009 19:24

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Business Use?

I have to wonder if there are any business applications for this device. On our network here at work we have two super users that transfer GB/TBs of data over the network. I wonder this this device would help streamline their throughput?

Esse Quam Videri

25 March, 2009 10:49

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You should look into TOE cards

TOE or TCP/IP Offload Engine adapters (sometimes called "network accelerators") will remove some of the workload from the CPU and OS and move it to the network card. A TOE card intercepts network packets and puts the payload from each packet directly to memory (and vice versa) without intervention from the host processor. This concept of offloading work from the main CPU is similar to a graphics coprocessor, which offloads visual rendering tasks from the main CPU onto the graphics card. They are more helpful to improve performance on slower systems but should give you some performance increase even on new systems.

914four
25 March, 2009 13:36

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