4 ms·

Could you fill out those tiers? Who has better wifi/ethernet chips than Intel atm?

justinclift 8y ago
Chelsio has 10GbE (and above) adapters with good reputation. Mellanox has 40GbE (and above) adapters with good reputation. Mellanox also have 10GbE stuff, but that's mostly older generation / legacy (low end). Not sure how the 10GbE ones are regarded.
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  What about Aquantia? Although I'm sad the USB 3.1 5gbit NICs never appeared.
  - justinclift 8y ago
    Sorry, no idea as I've never heard of them. :)
  - chx 8y ago
    That's not 100% correct. You can get them if you buy 500 or more. Product page: http://www.speeddragon.com/index.php?controller=Default&action=ProductInfo&Id=797 http://www.speeddragon.com/index.php?controller=Default&acti... Available https://sybatech.en.alibaba.com/product/60793590161-804423206/USB_TypeC_5_Gigabit_Ethernet_Network_Adapter.html https://sybatech.en.alibaba.com/product/60793590161-80442320... I talked to Syba USA two months ago and they said end of Q1 so I didn't pursue the idea of bringing 500 into the US and sell them. I still might. Do you know any good platforms for this sort of thing? The other reason I didn't pursue this because the Realtek based 2.5gbps adapters are out https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/club3d/usb-3-2-gen1-type-c-to-rj45-2-5gbps-art-cac-1520-num-11069657/ https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/clu... (USB A version: https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/club3d/usb-3-2-gen1-type-a-to-rj45-2-5gbps-art-cac-1420-num-11069655/ https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/clu...) and I wasn't sure whether people would care enough to jump to 5gbps.
    - chx 8y ago
      I put it on Massdrop https://www.massdrop.com/vote/Type-C-USB3-1-to-5-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter https://www.massdrop.com/vote/Type-C-USB3-1-to-5-Gigabit-Eth...
    - voltagex_ 8y ago
      Nice! Unfortunately, I don't know 500 people who'd want one and I think shipping from the US to anywhere not-US (say, Australia) would be prohibitively expensive.
- shaklee3 8y ago
  Chelsio and mellanox both have 100G with good reputations. 10G is not really something we should be comparing on anymore since it's been out over a decade.
WeakLanguage 8y ago
WiFi: Tier 1 is unquestionably Qualcomm Atheros (surprise!). Ethernet NIC/CNA rankings(IMHO): 1. Mellanox is the pack leader right now. 2. Chelsio is right up there with them, but not leading. 3. SolarFlare and Intel bring up the middle ground. 4. Everyone else (QLogic, Broadcom, etc) Aquantia is an unknown for me. As long as they dont suck, they'll probably go in tier 3.
- fro0116 8y ago
  Interested in learning more. Could you provide some sources on why Qualcomm Atheros is "Tier 1"?
  - WeakLanguage 8y ago
    I dont have any, and I'm not going to dig up some to pretend I do. I am speaking off the cuff as someone heavily involved and interested in RF in general and WiFi/LTE in particular. From my anecdota(shame this isnt a word), Atheros chips have better SNR and higher symbol discrimination thanks to cleaner amps, better signal discrimination logic, and tend to be on the forefront of newer RF techniques in the WiFi space. All this culminates in better throughput, latency, and spectrum utilization than anyone else. It also helps that their support under Linux is far superior to most everything else, which helps in Router/AP/Client integration and testing. I don't even like Qualcomm, but from my experience, you will almost always regret choosing someone else for anything but the most basic requirements.
    - stagger87 8y ago
      No offense, but if you are going to make claims about SNR and other RF performance related specs/metrics you should be able to provide some data/measurements/datasheets to back up your claims, otherwise it is assumed you are talking out your ass. (Not that I particularly care about this instance, just from one RF guy to another.) Additionally, if you actually have this data, it would be relatively valuable. People pay for this type of information.
    - morning_gelato 8y ago

Chelsio has 10GbE (and above) adapters with good reputation. Mellanox has 40GbE (and above) adapters with good reputation. Mellanox also have 10GbE stuff, but that's mostly older generation / legacy (low end). Not sure how the 10GbE ones are regarded.

voltagex_ 8y ago
What about Aquantia? Although I'm sad the USB 3.1 5gbit NICs never appeared.
- justinclift 8y ago
  Sorry, no idea as I've never heard of them. :)
- chx 8y ago
  That's not 100% correct. You can get them if you buy 500 or more. Product page: http://www.speeddragon.com/index.php?controller=Default&action=ProductInfo&Id=797 http://www.speeddragon.com/index.php?controller=Default&acti... Available https://sybatech.en.alibaba.com/product/60793590161-804423206/USB_TypeC_5_Gigabit_Ethernet_Network_Adapter.html https://sybatech.en.alibaba.com/product/60793590161-80442320... I talked to Syba USA two months ago and they said end of Q1 so I didn't pursue the idea of bringing 500 into the US and sell them. I still might. Do you know any good platforms for this sort of thing? The other reason I didn't pursue this because the Realtek based 2.5gbps adapters are out https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/club3d/usb-3-2-gen1-type-c-to-rj45-2-5gbps-art-cac-1520-num-11069657/ https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/clu... (USB A version: https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/club3d/usb-3-2-gen1-type-a-to-rj45-2-5gbps-art-cac-1420-num-11069655/ https://www.centralpoint.nl/kabeladapters-verloopstukjes/clu...) and I wasn't sure whether people would care enough to jump to 5gbps.
  - chx 8y ago
    I put it on Massdrop https://www.massdrop.com/vote/Type-C-USB3-1-to-5-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter https://www.massdrop.com/vote/Type-C-USB3-1-to-5-Gigabit-Eth...
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    Nice! Unfortunately, I don't know 500 people who'd want one and I think shipping from the US to anywhere not-US (say, Australia) would be prohibitively expensive.
shaklee3 8y ago
Chelsio and mellanox both have 100G with good reputations. 10G is not really something we should be comparing on anymore since it's been out over a decade.

WeakLanguage 8y ago

WiFi: Tier 1 is unquestionably Qualcomm Atheros (surprise!). Ethernet NIC/CNA rankings(IMHO): 1. Mellanox is the pack leader right now. 2. Chelsio is right up there with them, but not leading. 3. SolarFlare and Intel bring up the middle ground. 4. Everyone else (QLogic, Broadcom, etc) Aquantia is an unknown for me. As long as they dont suck, they'll probably go in tier 3.

fro0116 8y ago
Interested in learning more. Could you provide some sources on why Qualcomm Atheros is "Tier 1"?
- WeakLanguage 8y ago
  I dont have any, and I'm not going to dig up some to pretend I do. I am speaking off the cuff as someone heavily involved and interested in RF in general and WiFi/LTE in particular. From my anecdota(shame this isnt a word), Atheros chips have better SNR and higher symbol discrimination thanks to cleaner amps, better signal discrimination logic, and tend to be on the forefront of newer RF techniques in the WiFi space. All this culminates in better throughput, latency, and spectrum utilization than anyone else. It also helps that their support under Linux is far superior to most everything else, which helps in Router/AP/Client integration and testing. I don't even like Qualcomm, but from my experience, you will almost always regret choosing someone else for anything but the most basic requirements.
  - stagger87 8y ago
    No offense, but if you are going to make claims about SNR and other RF performance related specs/metrics you should be able to provide some data/measurements/datasheets to back up your claims, otherwise it is assumed you are talking out your ass. (Not that I particularly care about this instance, just from one RF guy to another.) Additionally, if you actually have this data, it would be relatively valuable. People pay for this type of information.
  - morning_gelato 8y ago