High Speed Beowulf Cluster using gigabit ethernet

[W Bauske]

Trent Piepho wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Velocet wrote:
> > > $36 GbE NIC's in the US ? The lowest i heard of was Intel's GbE NIC's for $69.
> > >
> > > Would you mind sending me the links to the site you brought it from ?
> >
> > $34.50 USD for ADDTRON GBE based on the NS83820 (or is that 82830?)
> > chipset.
> >
> > not sure if its a 32 or 64 bit card though.
> 
> The $36 addtron cards that a few places have on pricewatch are 32bit cards.  I
> also see Ark GA-2500T and D-Link DGE-500T cards for $44-50 from a few places.
> The cheapest 64-bit cards seem to be some more Addtron ones starting at $67.
> 
> Addtron claims their 320T and 620T (64bit) cards work with Linux.  I don't
> know what the ark and dlink cards' status is.  The quality of the driver (
> stability, hardware TCP/IP checksum, jumbo frames, etc.) and any motherboards
> incompatibilities are also a big question.
> 

ARK GbE work fine. I have around 40 in use. Note these cards
are supposed to be capable of 66Mhz/32bit performance if the PCI bus
supports it. I don't use mobo's with that speed 32bit bus though.
I've tried Tyan S2460 and Intel D845 with them.

The cards I bought for $36 claim to be 64bit and the pic shows a
64bit card. When they arrive, I'll know for sure. Also, What I've
found to be compatability issues has been the 64bit cards in 64bit
33Mhz slots. Haven't sorted it out. I know some of the 64bit cards I've
tried do work in a 32bit slot. No systematic testing though. I suspect
the driver is assuming a 66Mhz 64bit bus and messes up the card timing
but have no proof. The card just does nothing. Doesn't hang the system
though so it's not real painful to mess with.

Wes