Mar 5, 2011 11:48 GMT  ·  By

One may know that the Gigabit Ethernet interface is the new norm for consumer desktops, but 10 Gb Ethernet cards are the ones running rampant on the data center virtualization market, a market which Exar has, apparently, decided to back out of.

The amount of data available on the web is growing, as is the amount of users accessing it worldwide, meaning that the bandwidth has to keep growing in order to keep up.

In the case of data centers and pretty much everything to do with virtualization and the cloud, this involves better connectivity solutions.

Network interface cards are, of course, one of the primary factors behind the continued effectiveness of such applications.

However, it seems that not all companies dealing in such NICs (network interface cards) are gaining financial benefits.

Exar, for instance, has issued a press release in which it reveals that it is backing out of the market for 10 Gigabit Ethernet network cards.

"We made this decision based on a combination of factors, including lack of revenue traction for our data center virtualization products, the increasing investment required for developing next generation 10GbE products, and our interest in ensuring that other better performing investments are properly funded," said Pete Rodriguez, the company's president and CEO.

"Our objective is to continually direct our R&D efforts towards projects with the highest expected return on investment.”

“We estimate this action will reduce Non-GAAP operating expenses going forward by approximately $3.0 million per quarter from our current quarterly guidance range as early as the June quarter, which we expect to enable Non-GAAP profitability in fiscal 2012."

The products affected by the decision are the Exar X3100 and Xframe, acquired form Neterion in march, last year (2010). Moving forward, Exar will focus on the enterprise storage and communications infrastructure markets.