From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Mar 20 12:26:26 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA17531 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:26:26 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu (root@shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu [18.111.0.88]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA17352 for ; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:26:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from beng@shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu) Received: from shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu (beng@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id PAA27839 for ; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 15:26:05 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803202026.PAA27839@shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.1 12/23/97 To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: New vx driver (Re: vx device (3c905-100mb) ) In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:33:08 MST." From: Benjamin Greenwald X-Sender: beng@lcs.mit.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 15:26:04 -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I hadn't heard about any problems with NFS traffic. I've used these cards in a mixed network with Sparc and PA-RISC workstations and I have to say I got at least comparable NFS performance from the 3Com NIC's. The Intel cards are probably the best... they are certainly the most flexible. As to the DEC cards, it is my understanding that they have alignment restrictions (packets have to be long word aligned... therefore a copy is required) that limit performance. I'm not saying the 3Com cards are the best out there. I _know_ there is a great deal of improvement to be made (the card under Win NT screams), but just how much I'm not going to attempt to quantify at this rather early date. The truth is it doesn't matter. There are a lot of these cards out there and a lot of people who run FreeBSD use them. Whatever performance we can suck out of them, we should. If it turns out that the numbers are less impresive than the Intel or DEC numbers, at least people can make a more informed decision about purchasing because they'll be comparing apples to apples, not apples to rotten acorns. For the rest of us who are stuck with what we've got, at least we won't feel that rush of air and the sonic boom as the world passes us by. -Ben > > I have heard that those cards are architecturally unimpressive. What type > of performance do you expect? I have heard they are slower than the DECs > and Intels, especially for NFS traffic. Any comments? > > Kevin > > On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Benjamin Greenwald wrote: > > > I might as well take this as an opportunity to announce that a new vx drive r > > is under development. I just received the technical docs from 3Com and sho uld > > have a good amount of time to sit down and hack this coming week. > > > > -Ben Greenwald > > > > > The man page for the 'vx' device only mentions 10Mb support (in 2.2.2). > > > Has this device been updated to support 100mbit yet? And if not is anyone > > > working on updating it? I have time to work on the driver, but have done > > > (very) little driver programming. > > > I would like to run it at 100mbit-full-duplex, but it does not appear to > > > be fully supported in this configuration. > > > -James Flemer > > > > > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message > > > > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message