Recommendations for 10gbps NIC

[Scott Long]

On Jul 28, 2013, at 2:42 PM, Jack Vogel <jfvogel at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Andre Oppermann <andre at freebsd.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 27.07.2013 10:42, Alexander V. Chernikov wrote:
>> 
>>> On 27.07.2013 12:15, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Alexander V. Chernikov
>>>> <melifaro at freebsd.org>  wrote:
>>>> This makes me curious because i believe people have used netmap with
>>>> the 82598 and achieved close to line rate even with 64-byte frames/one
>>>> port,
>>>> and i thought (maybe I am wrong ?) the various 2-port NICs use 4 lanes
>>>> per port.
>>>> So the number i remember does not match with your quote of 2.5Gt/s.
>>>> Are all 82598 using 2.5GT/s (which is a gen.1 speed) instead of 5 ?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> 
>>> Quoting 82598EB datasheet:
>>> The PCIe v2.0 (2.5 GT/s) interface is used by the 82598EB as a host
>>> interface. It supports x8, x4,
>>> x2 and x1 configurations at a speed of 2.5 GHz. The maximum aggregated
>>> raw ban..
>>> 
>>> Actually I discovered this exactly with netmap and 82598*-DA2 NIC :)
>>> 
>> 
>> Discussing the 82598 is moot because it has been replaced with the 82599
>> which supports x1-x8 at 5 GT/s.  AFAIK you can't event buy the 82598
>> anymore.
>> 
>> 
> Yes, and the new quad port adapters on PCIE Gen 3 give you 8GT/s bandwidth
> for
> the device. I'm not sure if you could buy the 82598 but I surely would not
> recommend
> it to anyone :)

FWIW, sometimes these kinds of cards are interesting if your primary interest is
link failover instead of aggregate link speed.  If the 82598 generated less heat
and/or consumed less power, or was significantly cheaper than more modern
offerings, it can still be attractive.

Scott