Network Interface Controller [NIC]

A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card,network adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface, and by similar terms) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.

Network interface controller

A 1990s Ethernet network interface controller card that connects to the motherboard via the now-obsolete ISA bus. This combination card features both a BNC connector (left) for use in (now obsolete) 10BASE2 networks and an 8P8C connector (right) for use in 10BASE-T networks.
Connects to	Motherboard via one of: integrated in chipset or SoC discrete onboard PCI Connector ISA Connector PCIe (including Mini PCIe and M.2) FireWire USB Thunderbolt Network via one of: Ethernet Wi-Fi Fibre Channel ATM FDDI Token Ring ARCNET
Speeds	Full-duplex or half-duplex: 10 Mbit/s 100 Mbit/s 1 Gbit/s Full-duplex: 2.5 Gbit/s 5 Gbit/s 10 Gbit/s up to 160 Gbit/s
Common manufacturers	Intel Realtek Broadcom (includes former Avago, Emulex) Marvell Technology Group Cavium (formerly QLogic) Mellanox Chelsio

Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plugged into a computer bus. The low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard, or is contained into a USB-connected dongle.

Modern network interface controllers offer advanced features such as interrupt and DMA interfaces to the host processors, support for multiple receive and transmit queues, partitioning into multiple logical interfaces, and on-controller network traffic processing such as the TCP offload engine.