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Date:      Wed, 15 Apr 1998 19:54:29 -0600 (MDT)
From:      Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC <softweyr@xmission.com>
To:        freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc:        <woods@planix.com>
Subject:   Re: various PCI Ethernet cards v.s. SMC Ethernet switches....
Message-ID:  <199804160154.TAA12798@xmission.xmission.com>
In-Reply-To: <199804152022.QAA00253@brain.zeus.leitch.com> from "Greg A. Woods" at Apr 15, 98 04:22:10 pm

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Greg A. Woods recently opined:
> We hadn't tried the Intel (fxp) card until today, so don't know if
> there's any recent change in it.  It behaves similarly to the tx driver,
> though a wee tiny bit better speed-wise (in both directions, but still
> abysmal in sending) in full-duplex mode, and dies much faster [about
> 2MB].  It is yet again even better in half-duplex mode, but still
> abysmal in sending [50KB/s?, also dead after 2MB].
> [...]
> I can't quite imagine this is a problem with the switch -- otherwise
> people wouldn't recommend them or use them.  Though I can't prove this,
> I'd guess that SMC's own (i.e. MS-Windows) drivers must work with their
> own switch.

Just for giggles, I tested this on a 2.2.6-RELEASE machine in our
lab.  The configuration used:


 lab2              prodo                  thrallo
 Pentium/200       Xylan OmniSwitch 9     Axil 320 (2x75Mhz SuperSPARC)
 FreebSD 2.2.6-R   XOS 2.1.7 RELEASE      Solaris 2.5
 fxp0 ------------ FESM-8 100Base-TX ---- Sun HME 100Base-TX

Ftp results, using a 6 MB binary file:

   FreeBSD client, Solaris server:
      put: 6043820 bytes sent in 10.57 seconds (558.58 KB/s)
      get: 6043820 bytes received in 6.19 seconds (953.43 KB/s)

   Solaris client, FreeBSD server:
      put: 6043820 bytes sent in 6.5 seconds (9.1e+02 Kbytes/s)
      get: 6043820 bytes received in 5.7 seconds (1e+03 Kbytes/s)


Note the OmniSwitch was not exactly quite, but wasn't heavily loaded
either.  You *can't* load an Omni with the 20 people we have in our
office here.  ;^)

The FreeBSD write performance isn't stellar, but I'd say your problems
may have something to do with the switch.  I can probably work you a
deal on a nice shiny new OmniStack 1032!  ;^)

-- 
          "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"

Wes Peters                                                       Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr                       softweyr@xmission.com

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