10gigE link with FreeBSD hosts ?

[George Sanders]

I am seeing Sun Microsystems branded 10gigE adaptors (pci-x) on ebay nowadays for $500.

So ... let's say I took some plain-jane, modern-ish PC (intel core, or c2d, pci-x, etc.) and set up this topology:


a <-- cable --> b  <-- cable --> c

and on each of (a) and (c) put one 10gigE adaptor, and on (b) put two 10gigE adaptors, and set up bridging on (b)

Would it be reasonable to then expect to transfer data from (a) to (c) at a, roughly, 10 gigabit/s rate ?

If not, what is the limiting factor ?

The idea is that I would use a commodity PC + multiple pci-X slots as a "poor mans" 10gigE switch ... I can't afford an actual 10gigE switch, but I don't need that many ports anyway.

Any comments or field reports would be appreciated.