From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Mar 9 22:33:43 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from russian-caravan.cloud9.net (russian-caravan.cloud9.net [168.100.1.4]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 348A737B71B for ; Fri, 9 Mar 2001 22:33:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from zhaoc@cloud9.net) Received: from earl-grey.cloud9.net (earl-grey.cloud9.net [168.100.1.1]) by russian-caravan.cloud9.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 53A9F28CC2 for ; Sat, 10 Mar 2001 01:33:32 -0500 (EST) Received: by earl-grey.cloud9.net (Postfix, from userid 11022) id 7681D1F1B; Sat, 10 Mar 2001 01:33:31 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 01:33:31 -0500 From: Chen Zhao To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: if_fxp - the real point Message-ID: <20010310013331.A57865@earl-grey.cloud9.net> References: <5.0.0.25.0.20010309204335.01fc2b00@mail.etinc.com> <200103100202.f2A22Nq00619@mass.dis.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: <200103100202.f2A22Nq00619@mass.dis.org>; from msmith@freebsd.org on Fri, Mar 09, 2001 at 06:02:22PM -0800 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG \- Mike Smith stated on /- [Fri, Mar 09, 2001 at 06:02:22PM -0800]: > > NDA's in this particular space serve a limited set of purposes: > > - They constitute engineering damage control; witness Realtek's > unhappiness at Bill's honest commentary on their documented parts. \_____End_of_Statement_____/ I have a quick question (this was asked before, but I haven't seen a real answer to it..) for Mr. Paul and other driver authors. Given the NDA situation with Intel, et al., and the possibility that support for the fxp driver may wane a bit, the necessity for future planning prompts me to ask: What is the next most (unofficially of course :) recommended NIC in terms of driver stability, card reliability and performance, and driver efficiency (low overhead, etc.), ignoring for the moment actual NIC price, and just judging from a technical perspective? For instance, the fxp driver has been touted (I've seen this somewhere) as being extremely efficient (the hardware itself also being very high performance), and stable (b/c Mr. Greenman was able to obtain some documents w/o the NDA). The linux analogue of the xl is their driver and NIC of choice. Would the xl be next on the list, or would it be one of the previously mentioned D-Link/Netgear cards for which documentation is freely available? I've always thought that the latter brands were lower performance cards... Thanks for the insights, and (I don't think this ever gets said enough), thanks for a superb OS. Oh, is there also a recommended gigabit adapter? Tigon? Intel? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message