SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING EFFICIENT ADDRESS TRANSLATION IN A NETWORK INTERFACE CONTROLLER (NIC)

A network interface controller (NIC) capable of facilitating efficient memory address translation is provided. The NIC can be equipped with a host interface, a cache, and an address translation unit (ATU). During operation, the ATU can determine an operating mode. The operating mode can indicate whether the ATU is to perform a memory address translation at the NIC. The ATU can then determine whether a memory address indicated in the memory access request is available in the cache. If the memory address is not available in the cache, the ATU can perform an operation on the memory address based on the operating mode.