Which NIC is better: fxp or dc?

[No at SPAM at mgEDV.net]

> Hello!
> 
>    Suppose you have to build a high-performance router with several NICs,
> and you have to use a mix of D-Link DFE-570TX (21143, MII, quad port)
served
> by dc(4), and several Intel 82558/9/0 adapters served by fxp(4). Router
> has to have 2-3 high-speed connections and several ones which lower speed
> and packet rate. Which NIC (dc or fxp) would you recommend for high-speed
> connections: dc or fxp? Which combo (NIC+driver) is more reliable? Which
> gives higher performance (reliability for me is more significant than
> performance)? Currently I'm using RELENG_4, but in the future I'll upgrade
> to RELENG_6 (when it becomes mature enough), so I'm interested in the
> state of affairs in both branches.

we have good performance counters for both of them. for support and
common usage reasons (more users mean more testing) we selected the
fxp cards.
as far as i know, there's currently a fxp panic issue in 6.1-BETA4, but i
don't exactly know the details (maybe this is interesting for you).
however, we're successfully running gateways with 10 physical interfaces
being fxp-controlled.

hope that helps!