From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Feb 25 18:10:32 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id SAA27989 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Wed, 25 Feb 1998 18:10:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from Kitten.mcs.com (Kitten.mcs.com [192.160.127.90]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA27933 for ; Wed, 25 Feb 1998 18:10:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from karl@Mars.mcs.net) Received: from Mars.mcs.net (karl@Mars.mcs.net [192.160.127.85]) by Kitten.mcs.com (8.8.7/8.8.2) with ESMTP id UAA13692; Wed, 25 Feb 1998 20:10:19 -0600 (CST) Received: (from karl@localhost) by Mars.mcs.net (8.8.7/8.8.2) id UAA29557; Wed, 25 Feb 1998 20:10:19 -0600 (CST) Message-ID: <19980225201019.27829@mcs.net> Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 20:10:19 -0600 From: Karl Denninger To: Dan Nelson Cc: freebsd@isvara.net, FreeBSD Hackers Subject: Re: "Best" Fast Ethernet Card References: <19980225125126.05029@mcs.net> <34F477DC.41FD810D@challenge.isvara.net> <19980225165403.33142@emsphone.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84 In-Reply-To: <19980225165403.33142@emsphone.com>; from Dan Nelson on Wed, Feb 25, 1998 at 04:54:03PM -0600 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, Feb 25, 1998 at 04:54:03PM -0600, Dan Nelson wrote: > In the last episode (Feb 25), freebsd@isvara.net said: > > The recently released 3com Fast Etherink XL (rev B) 3C905B NIC is the > > best money can buy (apart from server cards costing upwards of > > 250UKP). It has lower CPU usage than any other card, helping it to > > give the fastest performance. > > > > Check it out on: > > http://www.3com.com/products/dsheets/400250a.html#Parallel > > and > > http://www.3com.com/solutions/200399.html > > Are you sure about that? According to the first URL you gave, the Fast > Etherlink XL cas only a 4K buffer, split 2K/2K Send/Receive. This > makes it useless for NFS, as a fragmented 8K packet will never get > through (I've seen it happen on a P6/200). The non-XL cards have a 64K > buffer, but only come in ISA or EISA flavors. The XL is PCI-only. > > In addition, the "Parallel Tasking" feature of their NICs only works > when you use 3Com switches/hubs at the other end. I don't have a > reference for this though. I think it was in a recent PC Week article. > > I would lean toward the Intel EtherExpress/Pro, myself. > > -Dan Nelson > dnelson@emsphone.com > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message Considering that the application is an NFS server, this kind of issue is very important to me indeed! :-) -- -- Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - Serving Chicagoland and Wisconsin http://www.mcs.net/ | T1's from $600 monthly to FULL DS-3 Service | NEW! K56Flex support on ALL modems Voice: [+1 312 803-MCS1 x219]| EXCLUSIVE NEW FEATURE ON ALL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS Fax: [+1 312 803-4929] | *SPAMBLOCK* Technology now included at no cost To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message