[Sunhelp] 100Mhz needed for each port in use

[Dale Ghent]

On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Glover, Duke wrote:

| Hello SUN gods,
| 
| I was told by a SUN rep that you needed 100Mhz worth of processor for each
| Ethernet port in use on a qfe card.  In other words, if you wanted to use
| all 4 Ethernet ports you needed to have 400Mhz worth of processor.  I have
| been unable to find any documentation supporting this.  Has anyone ever
| heard this before ?  Or can anyone point me to some documentation that might
| discuss this.  Is anyone out there running a system using all 4 ports with
| less than 400Mhz ?

He's reading that right out of the QFE installation guide. Why 100Mhz/port
is needed is beyong me. The only remotely plausible explanation would be
that at full load of all 4 ports doing full-duplex 100Mb ethernet (800Mb/s
aggregate) than would require some amount of CPU horsepower to services
the drivers and keep the bus happy.

Who knows. All I know is that my QFE card is just happy having all 4 ports
active at full-duplex and modertately busy.

Smile, nod, buy your card, and for the most part, disregard.

/dale