Subject: Re: GigE cards for x86
To: Paul Dokas <dokas@cs.umn.edu>
From: Jason R Thorpe <thorpej@wasabisystems.com>
List: current-users
Date: 05/08/2002 11:27:51
On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 01:09:02PM -0500, Paul Dokas wrote:

 >  + Intel PRO/1000 XF	(Chipset:  i82544EI)

These work pretty well (although TCP/UDP checksum offloading is
currently broken; I'm working on that problem right now).  I've
been using an i82543 1000BASE-SX card for quite some time on my
main production server (since long before the driver was committed
to the tree):

wm1 at pci0 dev 13 function 0: Intel i82543 1000BASE-X Ethernet, rev. 2
wm1: interrupting at irq 11
wm1: Ethernet address 00:03:47:0d:3a:01
wm1: 1000baseSX, 1000baseSX-FDX, auto

wm1   1500  <Link>        00:03:47:0d:3a:01  5445510     0  4605130     0     0
wm1   1500  208.176.2.160 yeah-baby          5445510     0  4605130     0     0
wm1   1500  fe80::        fe80::203:47ff:fe  5445510     0  4605130     0     0
wm1   1500  3ffe:507:183: 3ffe:507:183::1    5445510     0  4605130     0     0

11:21AM  up 3 days, 19:28, 4 users, load averages: 0.21, 0.16, 0.17

(Uptime is only 3 days because I needed to plop a new kernel on it that long
ago :-)

...though I must admit it's merely a Gig-E trunk to my 48-port 10/100
switch.

 > It's the BCM570X based cards that I'm particularly interested in.  It
 > seems to have about the best performance to price ratio on other OSs.

I've been pokey about it, but a BCM5700 driver is on my list, and I plan
on having something that can ship with 1.6.

 > So, before I attempt to port FreeBSD's bge driver, is there anyone
 > already working on it?  Or, am I crazy and should just go with the
 > Intel cards?

You can also find Netgear GA260 (both fiber and copper) on eBay .. the
fiber versions are in the $100 range.  Those cards work great with the
"ti" driver.

-- 
        -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@wasabisystems.com>