On Fri, 2006-06-16 at 21:41 +0100, Pete Clarke wrote: > Hi there, > > This is slightly offtopic, but does anyone know the maximum number of fast > ethernet cards a typical PC can handle..? > I want to use a cheap (ish) Debian box as a firewall/router to suppliment my > Netgear, and provide more services to the internal network than currently > available. > > With this in mind, I was intending on slapping a load of dual portal network > cards into a redundant PC. > I remember reading a while back that the ultimate limit will be the PCI bus > bandwidth - with this in mind, what would be the maximum number of NIC's I > could realistically install into a PC? Why not use Quad-Port or 6-Port NICs? INTEL: Intel makes some very good 4-port NICs, but alas I've only had the privilege of using 2 in a single machine. They work just fine. In very new machines with 4 or 6 PCI-X slots you may be able to get 4 or 6 of these in the machine. The only thing is, I've heard of a limitation using the "Intel" Single Driver Kernel Module for these, being "2" physical NICs. Bummer. But I could be wrong and/or quoting old specs. http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000gt_quadport_server_adapter.htm http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000mt_quad_server_adapter.htm Chelsio: All I can say is what I have heard. Wow. These babies are the shizzle for anyone's Izzle. The are capable 4 port NICs. TCP Offload (makes your CPU utilization near Zilch) and 64,000 TCP connection off load. Plus I understand they only support linux. Plus the drivers are in the main 2.4/.2.6 kernels branches, 2.4.25+ and 2.6.12+. I do know they have or have been working on making it possible to have "unlimited" numbers of these NICs in a single machine. Unlimited only limited by physical space... http://www.chelsio.com/products/T204.php Adaptec: Adaptec used to sell 2 and 4 port NICs. Dunno about why they quit, but I have used quite a few of them, since about '96. No URL, but support is still there from adaptec. So if you can get 'em you might well be able to use them. But I have zero info on multiples in a machine. Syskonnect: Only dual port NICs. Stable support in Linux, amazingly works very well. Higher CPU utilization than Chelsio and Intel, but good throughput for that CPU utilization. http://www.skd.de/e_en/products/adapters/pcie_server/sk-9e22/sk-9e22.html http://www.skd.de/e_en/products/adapters/pci_x/sk-9s22/sk-9s22.html There are PCI-X backplanes coming into the picture, with various CPU options and upto 20 PCI-X slots. But I have not seen any definite release indications at all. Good luck. -- greg, greg@gregfolkert.net The technology that is Stronger, better, faster: Linux
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