A network interface controller or also known as a “NIC” is a piece of
hardware that is used to connect a computer to a computer network. The
NIC implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a
specific physical layer and data link layer. The standard data link
layers are Ethernet, Wi-FI, or Token Ring. This provides a base for a
fill network protocol stack, allowing communication among small groups
of computers on the same LAN and large-scale network communications
through routable protocols, such as IP.
The NIC allows computers to communicate over a computer network. It
is both OSI layer 1 (physical layer) and layer 2 (data link layer)
device, as it provides physical access to a networking medium and, for
IEEE 802 networks and FDDI, provides a low-level addressing system
through the use of MAC addresses. It allows users to connect to each
other either by using cables or wirelessly.
Some NICs offer integrated field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for
user-programmable processing of network traffic before it reaches the
host computer, allowing for significantly redunced latencies in
time-sensitive workloads. Some companies, like Solarflare with its open-source OpenOnload network
stack whcih runs on Linux, offer even complete low-latency TCP/IP
stacks running on integrated FPGAs in combination with userspace
libraries which intercept networking operations usually performed by the
operating system’s kernel; such an approach is usually refereed to as
user-level networking.
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