[rescue] Cheap GbE PCI adapter for SPARC/x86/x64 Solaris

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Peter Corlett <abuse at cabal.org.uk>
>Date: 2008/08/22 Fri AM 11:55:49 EDT
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Cheap GbE PCI adapter for SPARC/x86/x64 Solaris

>On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 04:32:26PM +0100, Sevan / Venture37 wrote:
>> If you're planning to use 9K Jumbo frames I would steer clear of the Realtek
>> chipset cards, according to the re(4) man page on OpenBSD:
>> "The RealTek 8169, 8169S and 8110S chips are only capable of transmitting
>> Jumbo frames up to 7440 bytes in size."
>
>Realtek can't make network cards for toffee.
>
>I bought some GigE network cards without checking the chipset, and ended up
>with a Realtek. Sighing, I stuffed it into the system and gave it a spin. It
>wouldn't do full-duplex GigE, just half-duplex GigE or full-duplex FE.
>Suspecting a dodgy cable, I tried that on a couple of different machines and
>they worked just fine. And its half-duplex GigE would only do about 11MB/s
>anyway - exactly the same as FE.

>From : http://homepage2.nifty.com/mrym3/taiyodo/eng/

<quote>

15. gani driver for Realtek rtl8169 rtl8110 rtl8168 rtl8101 PCI/PCI-Express GbE chipset
Tested OS version:

Solaris9 12/02 x86, solaris10 3/05 x86, solaris nevada b48.

Performance:

730Mbps for tx and 830Mbps for rx with 33MHz/32bit PCI bus and Athlon2800+.

Tested chips (PCI/PCI-e card product):

RTL8169S-32 (Planex Communications GN-1200TC)

RTL8169S-32 (Corega CG-LAPCIGT)

RTL8168B (realtek demo card, only supported by gani-2.0.0 or later)

RTL8101E (realtek demo card, only supported by gani-2.0.0 or later)

RTL8169SC (realtek demo card, only supported by gani-2.0.0 or later)

</quote>

The performance "reported" looks impressive - 700-800 Mb/Sec+ rates.

Just two performance data points, I'd need to know more about how both tests were made, both Peter's and the quoted website before I could make any decision.

Lionel