diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 32affbf42b..78ceef71b1 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ Trunk (not on release branches yet)
 - Native Windows support has been removed. A cygwin package is
   available from that group for Windows-based use.
 - Added MPI Java bindings
-
+- Added new usnic BTL to support the Cisco usNIC device
 - Wrapper compilers now add rpath support by default to generated
   executables on systems that support it.  This behavior can be
   disabled via --disable-wrapper-rpath.  See note in README about ABI
diff --git a/README b/README
index a0bc89c266..5d680957a9 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -504,6 +504,7 @@ Network Support
     - SCTP
     - uDAPL
     - Windows Verbs
+    - Cisco usNIC
 
   - "csum" is exactly the same as "ob1", except that it performs
     additional data integrity checks to ensure that the received data
@@ -542,6 +543,11 @@ Network Support
   - Shared memory communication
   - Hardware-assisted reliability
 
+- The usnic BTL is support for Cisco's usNIC device ("userspace NIC")
+  on Cisco UCS servers with the Virtualized Interface Card (VIC).
+  Although the usNIC is accessed via the OpenFabrics / Verbs API
+  stack, this BTL is specific to the Cisco usNIC device.
+
 - The OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) software package v1.0
   will not work properly with Open MPI v1.2 (and later) due to how its
   Mellanox InfiniBand plugin driver is created.  The problem is fixed
@@ -806,8 +812,8 @@ NETWORKING SUPPORT / OPTIONS
   This option is generally only necessary if the verbs headers and
   libraries are not in default compiler/linker search paths.
 
-  "OpenFabrics" refers to iWARP-, RoCE- (aka "IBoIP"), and
-  InfiniBand-based networks.
+  "OpenFabrics" refers to operating system bypass networks, such as
+  InfiniBand, usNIC, iWARP, and RoCE (aka "IBoIP").
 
 --with-verbs-libdir=<directory>
   Look in directory for the verbs libraries.  By default, Open
@@ -1152,9 +1158,9 @@ MPI FUNCTIONALITY
 --without-memory-manager
   Disable building Open MPI's memory manager.  Open MPI's memory
   manager is usually built on Linux based platforms, and is generally
-  only used for optimizations with OpenFabrics-based networks (it is
-  not *necessary* for OpenFabrics networks, but some performance loss
-  may be observed without it).
+  only used for optimizations with some OpenFabrics-based networks (it
+  is not *necessary* for OpenFabrics networks, but some performance
+  loss may be observed without it).
 
   However, it may be necessary to disable the memory manager in order
   to build Open MPI statically.