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Conference 7.286::fddi

Title:FDDI - The Next Generation
Moderator:NETCAD::STEFANI
Created:Thu Apr 27 1989
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2259
Total number of notes:8590

1719.0. "Sun Sbus adapter options" by DPDMAI::DAVIES (Mark, SCA Area Network Consultant) Thu Jun 15 1995 22:50

    My customer is buying PCI FDDI cards from us for his DEC processors
    which will connect to the GIGAswitch/FDDI.  He wants us to make a
    recommendation for Sbus FDDI cards for his SParcStations (since we do
    not make one).
    
    He wants high performance and cost is not a major issue.
    
    Any ideas?  Is the Sun FDDI card able to run near bandwidth rates?
    
    Thanks,
    
    Mark
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1719.1Some test results,,,,CGOOA::PITULEYAin't technology wonderful?Fri Jun 16 1995 11:2725
    Mark,
    
    The only insight I can offer is based on a couple of tests run in "Data
    Communications (July 1994)" and "Network Computing (April 1994)" magazines.
    
    In the April test, they ran Cisco, Sun, Network Perhiperals and
    Interphase cards against each other.  The clear winner in terms of
    performance and value was the Cisco card.  The Sun card was fast but
    expensive and had a fairly serious flaw.  It caused the ring to
    continuously reset....Sun blamed the problems on an AT&T chip on the
    card.
    
    In the July test, they ran a Cisco FDDI Sbus Adapter-Turbo against a 
    Network Peripherals card (the NP-SBS-S10) and the Cisco adapter 
    outperformed the NP card at all frame sizes.  Pricing on the two cards
    was very comparable and is dependent on the media type and whether they 
    were DAS or SAS.
    
    While these tests are over a year old, I suspect the test data is still
    valid.  Cisco came out the clear winner in both tests.
    
    Brian Pituley
    NPC, Calgary
1719.2Wire speed???CGOS01::DMARLOWEWow! Reality, what a concept!Mon Jun 19 1995 18:5110
    I have a customer that has been using the Sun card.  Try to avoid that
    one as like Brian said, it doesn't work too well.
    
    The other side of the coin is that depanding on the model of the Sun,
    you may only get 4-5 MB (bytes) per second out of a Sun doing NFS. 
    Their code seems to have a strangle hold on the processor and my
    customer is considering putting in 2 or 3 NIC cards to get the
    performance up near FDDI speeds.
    
    dave