Re: ConneXion Ethernet Board

[Todd Vierling <tv%pobox.com@localhost>]

On Fri, 28 Nov 1997, Ignatios Souvatzis wrote:

: > It could very well be true. I tried sending a 2 MB JPEG file between my 
Amiga
: > (NetBSD) and a P166MMX running NT, 5 MB/s in one direction, 3-4 MB/s in the
: > other, according to ws_ftp.
: 
: Thats ___impossible___.
: 
: 10 Mbit/s Ethernet has a maximum transfer speed of about 1 Megabytes/s, _raw_.

It's likely that the test program was measuring mega*bits*, not mega*bytes*.

This is something not well described by communications products (modems,
lan cards, ...) manufacturers.  In almost all cases, communications devices
measure in bits or Megabits ("Mb").  We're used to talking about RAM and
disks, so we often refer to Megabytes ("MB").  1 Megabyte = 8 Megabits, so a
10Mb/s Ethernet card is capable of at most about 1.25MB/s.  (Actually
almost precisely 1MB/s because of protocol overhead.)  If a card is
doing 5Mb/s (5 Megabits/s), it is doing 0.675MB/s (0.675 Megabytes/s).

=====
== Todd Vierling (Personal tv%pobox.com@localhost; Business 
tv%lucent.com@localhost)
== Vierling's Axiom: The revolution won't be televised; it will be posted.