Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:10:37 +0000 From: freebsd@isvara.net To: FreeBSD Hackers <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: "Best" Fast Ethernet Card Message-ID: <34F4B2FD.3530EDEE@challenge.isvara.net> References: <19980225125126.05029@mcs.net> <34F477DC.41FD810D@challenge.isvara.net> <19980225165403.33142@emsphone.com>
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Dan Nelson wrote:
> 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.
All the buffer is used for is to transfer data to/from the card. It is in
no way a cache, etc.With the efficiency of the PCI bus, and bus-mastering,
that is all that is required.
> 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.
No. You may be thinking of the 'auto negotiation' feature. Parallel Tasking
(and new Parallel Tasking II in rev B) is the name given to the ethernet
engine. It has nothing to do with the physical layer.
Cheers,
Dan
_____________________________________
Daniel J Blueman
BSc Computation, UMIST, Manchester
Email: blue@challenge.isvara.net
Web: http://www.challenge.isvara.net/
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