User manual NETGEAR GA620 SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDE

[. . . ] White Paper on GA620/GA620T Gigabit Ethernet Card Performance Gigabit Ethernet adapters represent the next step in the evolution of network performance. The widespread adoption of Fast Ethernet at the desktop has created a bottleneck at the server, specifically at the Server adapter. Some companies have created Server adapters with multiple 100 Mbps connections, while others have populated several PCI slots with 100 Mbps adapters to boost Server bandwidth beyond Fast Ethernet. [. . . ] The driver is optimized for one -to-many scenarios, so testing in a back-to-back environment will yield slower results. More than 500 Mbps throughput is still possible using a multi-threaded testing program for testing network performance, such as Microsoft's NTTTCP program. While one is unlikely to see the full capabilities of a Gigabit Ethernet card when tested backto-back, it is still possible to get a feel for the capabilities of the adapter. File Transfer Another test that does not accurately measure adapter capability is a file transfer. Copying a file from one computer to another tests a hard drive's performance rather than network performance. In a test like this, the limiting factor is the performance of the computers, rather than the performance of the network. The copying process adds the overhead of the disc drives, as well as the operating system handling the copy. The test results indicate the computers' ability to process these additional requirements rather than the abilities of the connection between them. In a test like this it is possible to see results less than 20 Mbps on any card, which is slow for both a 100 Mbps card and the 1000 Mbps card. Surprisingly, the Gigabit adapter will probably be the slower of the two cards in this test. The reason a 1000 Mbps adapter would perform below a 100 Mbps adapter is quite simple in this test. In order to achieve Gigabit performance, Gigabit adapter drivers contain additional intelligence beyond Fast Ethernet drivers. This intelligence creates more overhead than a standard 10/100 card. When stressing the network at higher speeds, this overhead is negligible, and improves to the performance of the network. When the cards are run at minimal performance, such the file copy test, the Gigabit card will have slightly more overhead than a standard 10/100 card, causing slower performance. [. . . ] Throughout the testing used two different server machines: 1. IBM Netfinity 6000 Server (600MHz, 2GB RAM, BIOS version: 1. 02) with dual boot between Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Microsoft Windows NT 4. 0, SP6; 2. DELL PowerEdge 4400/600 Server (600MHz, 512MB RAM, BIOS version: A04) with dual boot between Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Microsoft Windows NT 4. 0, SP6. [. . . ]