Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 15:15:01 -0500 From: Dennis <dennis@etinc.com> To: "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@kdm.org> Cc: isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: AW: Best Gigabit ethernet for 4.x Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.0.20010324151230.03bc66d0@mail.etinc.com> In-Reply-To: <20010324124511.A18612@panzer.kdm.org> References: <5.0.0.25.0.20010324122812.038f4eb0@mail.etinc.com> <5.0.0.25.0.20001118113245.032d3130@mail.etinc.com> <B14AF62CDA08D4118B8C00508B44A0B5154E4E@server02.belenus.co <5.0.0.25.0.20001118113245.032d3130@mail.etinc.com> <20001118150437.A15956@panzer.kdm.org> <5.0.0.25.0.20010324122812.038f4eb0@mail.etinc.com>
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At 02:45 PM 03/24/2001, you wrote: >On Sat, Mar 24, 2001 at 12:31:05 -0500, Dennis wrote: > > At 05:04 PM 11/18/2000, Kenneth D. Merry wrote: > > >On Sat, Nov 18, 2000 at 11:33:29 -0500, Dennis wrote: > > > > At 04:28 PM 11/17/2000, Schmalzbauer, Harald wrote: > > > > >I just heard that Intel doesn't supply documentation on ther chipset > > > and the > > > > >FreeBSD and Linux support is quiet bad. The Netgear GA620 is said > to be > > > > >twice as fast. The same Chipset (Alteon Tigon/AceNIC) is on the > 3com985. > > > > > > > > > > > > Are all of the cards supported that use this chipset? I read somewhere > > > that > > > > the netgear card has a smallish buffer, and that the alteon was a > better > > > > choice. How does the 3com card compare in that respect? > > > > > >The Netgear boards have 512K SRAM, the 3Com boards have 1MB SRAM. > > > > > >You can get Alteon-branded boards (with either 512K or 1MB SRAM), but > > >generally only directly from Alteon, and you're going to pay more than you > > >would for either the 3Com or Netgear boards. > > > > > >The 3Com and Netgear boards are identical to the Alteon boards. The only > > >difference is they've got "Netgear" or "3Com" silk-screened on them, and > > >the Alteon boards don't have any logos on them. > > > > > >FWIW, 3Com is buying Alteon's NIC group. Apparantly (according to an > > >Alteon engineer who posted on the linux-acenic list) they're just buying > > >the technology, not hiring the engineers: > > > > When you say "identical", that implies that they are the same...or do you > > just mean that they use the same parts? It seems unlikely that alteon > would > > allow netgear to license its product and them sell it for 1/2 the price. > >Alteon evidently didn't want to undersell their OEMs. I think most of >their NIC business was via sales from Netgear, 3Com, etc., and not via >direct sales of their own NICs. (Which you could only buy direct from >Alteon.) > >And the cards are pretty much the same, except that the Alteon boards >generally have no identifying markings on them, whereas the Netgear and (I >think) 3Com boards have the vendor's name silk-screened on the board. > > > Price is not an issue at this level as performance is tantamount, but Im > > not sure you'd need more than 512M with unix unless you have several NICs > > in a box. > >I'd like to see a Gigabit board with 512M. :) Assuming you mean 512K, >you're probably right, that would be sufficient in many situations. The >thing to remember is that you don't get the entire 512K for caching >packets, since part of it (less than half) is used for the firmware and >data structures. If you put it on its own 64bit bus there will be no problems at all. I wouldnt use it on a shared 32-bit bus however. Dennis To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message
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