Bigfoot Networks is perhaps the first company that gave the network interface card (NIC) a high-end consumer take. The Killer N1 and K1 PCI NICs were known to come with some very innovative features that, as our review showed, did impact positively on networked gaming performance. After close to two and a half years since its previous NIC, Bigfoot Networks Killer is back. In the making is the Killer Xeno NIC.

With near identical features and more, this NIC takes the advantage of the newer leaner components in the market, such as the NPU which may be using a newer manufacturing process, NPU-accelerated audio that provides audio-chat with zero system-overhead, and up to 256 MB of onboard memory to drive this mini "PC inside PC". The ASIC is done away with, a newer gigabit Ethernet transceiver made by Broadcom is present. The card uses a native PCI-Express x1 interface. It comes in two variants: the 128 MB "Pro", and 256 MB "Ultra". Apart from selling these cards under its own banner, Bigfoot Networks has struck an OEM deal with Alienware. Also, the company has an AIB partner (a-la graphics cards), and guess who it is - EVGA. The Xeno Ultra will be priced at US $179.99, and the Xeno Pro at $129.99.

Bigfoot Networks have announced that they are planning a joint development program which will bring hardware-accelerated voice communication to the KillerNIC network interface card. This solution would move all of the client-side processing to the KillerNIC and reduce network load and performance impacts to an absolute minimum. DiamondWare technology enables HD positional and proximity-based 3D voice in games and can create a spatial positioning of each player/voice in a game. According to DiamondWare, this leads to an even more immersive 3D multi-player voice experience.