cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Jason Lunz]

I figure a few people on this list will be interested in this:

http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_comp_inet4.html

The site says almost nothing about the cards, but on a tip from a
coworker I bought one the last time this site had them for sale, and
have been extremely happy with it. lspci shows:

02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21142/43 (rev 41)
02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21142/43 (rev 41)
02:06.0 Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21142/43 (rev 41)
02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21142/43 (rev 41)

This card is similar to the d-link 570-TX, though it actually seems to
be of higher quality when you have it in hand. Rumor has it that a bunch
of these cards were made for a dot-bomb company and they're now just
surplus.

anyway, knowing the problems people are having with the sundance 580-TX
and the unavailability of other cheap 4-port nic options, i though I'd
let folks here know. A good 4-port tulip card for $30 is a nice deal.

sorry for the spam.

Jason

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Richard Gooch]

Jason Lunz writes:
> I figure a few people on this list will be interested in this:
> 
> http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_comp_inet4.html

Bastards won't ship out of the U.S.A. if the order is less than $500.
I want 2 cards, not 17 :-(

> anyway, knowing the problems people are having with the sundance
> 580-TX and the unavailability of other cheap 4-port nic options, i
> though I'd let folks here know. A good 4-port tulip card for $30 is
> a nice deal.

Indeed. Pity about the shipping restriction, though.

				Regards,

					Richard....
Permanent: rgooch@atnf.csiro.au
Current:   rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Ben Greear]

Jason Lunz wrote:
> I figure a few people on this list will be interested in this:
> 
> http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_comp_inet4.html
> 
> The site says almost nothing about the cards, but on a tip from a
> coworker I bought one the last time this site had them for sale, and
> have been extremely happy with it. lspci shows:

I just got mine, and ordered a bunch more...

These are the Phobos p430 NICs.  I have extensively benchmarked 2
of those NICs that I got as eval copies, and they perform as good
as or better than the 570tx, using the standard tulip driver.

I just noticed lots of these are on eBay too, so I'm guessing a whole
bunch of them got surplussed.  This is good news for me, because they
are too expensive if you try to purchase them from other channels!

Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Karen Shaeffer]

On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:06:51PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> > http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_comp_inet4.html
> > 
> > The site says almost nothing about the cards, but on a tip from a
> > coworker I bought one the last time this site had them for sale, and
> > have been extremely happy with it. lspci shows:
> 
> I just got mine, and ordered a bunch more...
> 
> These are the Phobos p430 NICs.  I have extensively benchmarked 2
> of those NICs that I got as eval copies, and they perform as good
> as or better than the 570tx, using the standard tulip driver.

I'm just curious. What do you do with a bunch of those cards? Do you put
them in a PC and make a switch out of it?

cheers,
Karen
-- 
 Karen Shaeffer
 Neuralscape; Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060
 shaeffer@neuralscape.com  http://www.neuralscape.com

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Richard Guy Briggs]

On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:14:17PM -0700, Karen Shaeffer wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:06:51PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> > > http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_comp_inet4.html
> > > 
> > > The site says almost nothing about the cards, but on a tip from a
> > > coworker I bought one the last time this site had them for sale, and
> > > have been extremely happy with it. lspci shows:
> > 
> > I just got mine, and ordered a bunch more...
> > 
> > These are the Phobos p430 NICs.  I have extensively benchmarked 2
> > of those NICs that I got as eval copies, and they perform as good
> > as or better than the 570tx, using the standard tulip driver.
> 
> I'm just curious. What do you do with a bunch of those cards? Do you put
> them in a PC and make a switch out of it?

Or a firewall...  Or a router...

> cheers,
> Karen
> -- 
>  Karen Shaeffer
>  Neuralscape; Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060
>  shaeffer@neuralscape.com  http://www.neuralscape.com
> 

	slainte mhath, RGB

-- 
Richard Guy Briggs           --    ~\                 Auto-Free Ottawa! Canada
<www.TriColour.net>            --    \@       @           <www.flora.org/afo/>
No Internet Wiretapping!        --   _\\/\%___\\/\%        Vote! -- <Green.ca>
<www.FreeSWAN.org>_______GTVS6#790__(*)_______(*)(*)_______<www.Marillion.com>

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Karen Shaeffer]

On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 05:27:59PM -0400, Richard Guy Briggs wrote:
> > 
> > I'm just curious. What do you do with a bunch of those cards? Do you put
> > them in a PC and make a switch out of it?
> 
> Or a firewall...  Or a router...

OK, I actually have 4 nics in a PC based router/firewall. But I wouldn't get
excited about buying a bunch of those cards. I'm just having a little fun--
humor me. ;)

Thanks for your comment.

cheers,
Karen
-- 
 Karen Shaeffer
 Neuralscape; Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060
 shaeffer@neuralscape.com  http://www.neuralscape.com

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Richard Gooch]

Karen Shaeffer writes:
> On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 05:27:59PM -0400, Richard Guy Briggs wrote:
> > > 
> > > I'm just curious. What do you do with a bunch of those cards? Do you put
> > > them in a PC and make a switch out of it?
> > 
> > Or a firewall...  Or a router...
> 
> OK, I actually have 4 nics in a PC based router/firewall. But I
> wouldn't get excited about buying a bunch of those cards. I'm just
> having a little fun-- humor me. ;)

I used to have a desktop PC with 3 NICs running as a firewall. With a
4-port NIC and a Via/Cyrix C3 (low profile fan), I can fit a firewall
into a 1U rackmount case. So, while it's a lot more troublesome
getting a stable router with these 4-port cards :-(, it's worth it in
the end if you've got space constraints.

				Regards,

					Richard....
Permanent: rgooch@atnf.csiro.au
Current:   rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Ben Greear]

Karen Shaeffer wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:06:51PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> 
>>>http://www.softwareandstuff.com/h_comp_inet4.html
>>>
>>>The site says almost nothing about the cards, but on a tip from a
>>>coworker I bought one the last time this site had them for sale, and
>>>have been extremely happy with it. lspci shows:
>>
>>I just got mine, and ordered a bunch more...
>>
>>These are the Phobos p430 NICs.  I have extensively benchmarked 2
>>of those NICs that I got as eval copies, and they perform as good
>>as or better than the 570tx, using the standard tulip driver.
> 
> 
> I'm just curious. What do you do with a bunch of those cards? Do you put
> them in a PC and make a switch out of it?

I make traffic generators out of them (www.candelatech.com)

They are also good for firewalls and routers, as well as more
exotic network devices.  Using linux for a switch does not make so
much sense these days when you can buy a 16 port switch for under $100,
but with bridging code it can be done.

Ben

> 
> cheers,
> Karen


-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Karen Shaeffer]

On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:32:10PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> Karen Shaeffer wrote:
> > On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:06:51PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> > 
> I make traffic generators out of them (www.candelatech.com)
> 
> They are also good for firewalls and routers, as well as more
> exotic network devices.  Using linux for a switch does not make so
> much sense these days when you can buy a 16 port switch for under $100,
> but with bridging code it can be done.

Actually, I think linux based switches could be quite interesting in
a pipelined, beowulf-like or openmosix cluster. (Of course, GigE would
probably be employed rather than FE.) You could then integrate traffic
shaping/monitoring functionality into the switch that could be designed
to interoperate with the cluster nodes to assist in optimizing data flow
and subsequent processing. With openmosix, this could also be used to
migrate processes towards optimum node placement, based on network
traffic analysis as well as nodal resource availability.

It's a subject I've been thinking about quite a bit lately. This is most
interesting in adaptive, pipelined clusters that will be processing
real-time streaming data. That's certainly a niche market at the present
time.

cheers,
Karen
-- 
 Karen Shaeffer
 Neuralscape; Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060
 shaeffer@neuralscape.com  http://www.neuralscape.com

Re: cheap 4-port tulip-based cards available

[Ben Greear]

Karen Shaeffer wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:32:10PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> 
>>Karen Shaeffer wrote:
>>
>>>On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 02:06:51PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
>>>
>>
>>I make traffic generators out of them (www.candelatech.com)
>>
>>They are also good for firewalls and routers, as well as more
>>exotic network devices.  Using linux for a switch does not make so
>>much sense these days when you can buy a 16 port switch for under $100,
>>but with bridging code it can be done.
> 
> 
> Actually, I think linux based switches could be quite interesting in
> a pipelined, beowulf-like or openmosix cluster. (Of course, GigE would
> probably be employed rather than FE.) You could then integrate traffic
> shaping/monitoring functionality into the switch that could be designed
> to interoperate with the cluster nodes to assist in optimizing data flow
> and subsequent processing. With openmosix, this could also be used to
> migrate processes towards optimum node placement, based on network
> traffic analysis as well as nodal resource availability.
> 
> It's a subject I've been thinking about quite a bit lately. This is most
> interesting in adaptive, pipelined clusters that will be processing
> real-time streaming data. That's certainly a niche market at the present
> time.

Right now, you'll have a tough time getting a single GigE NIC to run line
speed, full duplex.

However, I've thought about writing a controlling process that monitors
and dynamically configures a switch though SNMP or some other API.  That way,
you could migrate machines across LANs/VLANs to better distribute your traffic.

And, you could keep all your traffic running line speed (or however fast
your switches run)

> 
> cheers,
> Karen


-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear