Subject: Re: [netatalk-admins] (Fast) Ethernet speed survey
From: David Kelly (dkelly@hiwaay.net)
Date: Wed Dec 24 1997 - 19:46:54 EST
> Do you think, it is really worth to buy e.g. Asante's PCI Fast Ethernet
> adapters, where there exist inexpensive PC ones for the fraction of the
> price, using the same Tulip chipset; I suppose the driver software must
> be faster and faster as the price increases - I can't think of any
> notable hardware differences.
Z'nyx and Kingston also offer DEC based PCI ethernet cards. At least
Z'nyx, probably others also support the same card in Macs. No changes
to the card.
The DEC 21X4X "Tulip" based cards were once highly recommended by the
FreeBSD gurus. Now the current favorite is the Intel 10/100B.
http://www.cdrom.com/ is connected with only one of the Intel cards,
supports 2750 simultaineous users. And last time I heard a new record
had been set of 231,879,944,507 bytes served in 24 hours (Nov 2, 1997).
If I understand the current preference of Intel over DEC is due to less
restrictions on DMA for the Intel card. While the DEC DMA's into memory,
often (maybe never) its not the exact final resting place for the data
so it has to be copied again. The Intel card is apparently able to DMA
directly into the waiting data buffer. Maybe not always, but more often
than the DEC.
-- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.
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