A TCP-aware target adapter for accelerating TCP/IP connections between clients and servers, where the servers are interconnected over an Infiniband.TM. fabric and the clients are interconnected over a TCP/IP-based network. The TCP-aware target adapter includes an accelerated connection processor and a target channel adapter. The accelerated connection processor bridges TCP/IP transactions between the clients and the servers. The accelerated connection processor accelerates the TCP/IP connections prescribing Infiniband remote direct memory access operations to retrieve/provide transaction data from/to the servers. The target channel adapter is coupled to the accelerated connection processor. The target channel adapter supports Infiniband operations with the servers, including execution of the remote direct memory access operations to retrieve/provide the transaction data. The TCP/IP connections are accelerated by offloading TCP/IP processing otherwise performed by the servers to retrieve/provide said transaction data.