From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 18 23:48:59 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B279C16A402 for ; Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:48:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mike@sentex.net) Received: from smarthost2.sentex.ca (smarthost2.sentex.ca [205.211.164.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A5BA43D48 for ; Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:48:59 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mike@sentex.net) Received: from BLUELAPIS.sentex.ca (cage.simianscience.com [64.7.134.1]) by smarthost2.sentex.ca (8.13.4P/8.13.4) with SMTP id k3INmrF5012500; Tue, 18 Apr 2006 19:48:54 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from mike@sentex.net) From: Mike Tancsa To: Dave Cornejo Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 19:48:58 -0400 Message-ID: References: <200604180244.k3I2icZj076600@white.dogwood.com> In-Reply-To: <200604180244.k3I2icZj076600@white.dogwood.com> X-Mailer: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: crypto accelerators X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:48:59 -0000 On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 16:44:38 -1000 (HST), in sentex.lists.freebsd.net you wrote: >I've read here before (or maybe some other freebsd list) that cards >like the Soekris 1401 don't gain as much as you'd expect due to moving >packets to/from the card over the PCI bus. But the context is usually >one of trying to encrypt packets to increase throughput. > >So the question is whether these cards, regardless of their affect on >throughput, increase usable CPU cycles? I have several Soekris 1401 >cards and am wondering if there would be any point to putting them >into some machines that provide logins over ssh. These machines are >generally pretty good spec, 2.4GHz+, 1GB RAM, Intel MBs, mostly >on-board peripherals. The only place I found it really helpful for ssh connections was on our backup server where we had multiple inbound ssh connections (e.g. 10+ at once sending dump piped through ssh) it kept the CPU utilization down. If you have just one or two, it doesnt really matter ---Mike -------------------------------------------------------- Mike Tancsa, Sentex communications http://www.sentex.net Providing Internet Access since 1994 mike@sentex.net, (http://www.tancsa.com)