From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Sep 13 14:57:41 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail.utexas.edu (wb2-a.mail.utexas.edu [128.83.126.136]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 6018C37B423 for ; Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:57:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 23511 invoked by uid 0); 13 Sep 2000 21:57:37 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO chepe.mail.utexas.edu) (128.83.34.209) by umbs-smtp-2 with SMTP; 13 Sep 2000 21:57:37 -0000 Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20000913164651.00adbde0@mail.utexas.edu> X-Sender: oscars@mail.utexas.edu X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 16:53:29 -0500 To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: Oscar Ricardo Silva Subject: Gigabit nics? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG We're looking at testing some gigabit NICs and am wondering if anyone has any experience with them. I've found four vendors that make them: Alteon () Myricom/Myrinet () Intel 3COM The Alteon and Myrinet sites advertise compatibility with FreeBSD and what really got my attention on this was a Duke University project: *************** We did not improve the TCP/IP protocol software and we did not build or modify high-speed LAN hardware. These are significant technical achievements that we claim no credit for. The credit for the LAN is due to Myricom, and the credit for gigabit-capable TCP/IP software is due to others, e.g., Van Jacobson, Dave Borman, and many others who have contributed to TCP/IP over the years, as well as to its implementation in FreeBSD. Moreover, our result was made possible by advancing endstation hardware, most notably 64-bit PCI. Typical TCP socket implementations running over typical gigabit LANs (e.g., a Gigabit Ethernet using the standard 1500-byte MTU) deliver about half a gigabit per-second. We set up a DEC/Compaq Alpha 21264 (XP1000) workstation with prototype LANai-7 Myrinet cards donated by Myricom, installed our firmware, booted an enhanced FreeBSD kernel, and measured TCP bandwidths above 1.1 gigabits per second -- twice as fast as typical workstations and operating systems connected to current gigabit-per-second LANs. *************** which used FreeBSD and Digital Unix in conjunction with Myrinet and Alteon equipment. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks, Oscar To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message