3 ms·
Its not clear what level of 'hardware' you are talking about. For most gadgets, the only hardware related to networking you will find is a chip that does ether
by revelation 15y ago
Its not clear what level of 'hardware' you are talking about.
For most gadgets, the only hardware related to networking you will find is a chip that does ethernet and talks to the jack for you. Everything above (like IP) is done in software.
- ajb 15y agoI'm talking about routers, from the big devices in your datacentre/telco down to your dsl or cable home gateway. There's only a limited amount I can say about this ( at least, without having to think hard about I am allowed to say) but there really is a lot of silicon out there that knows what the layout of an IP packet is.
- chime 15y agoI think firmware is considered part of the hardware in this instance.
- trout 15y agoA NIC that talks ethernet doesn't mean it's in the hardware. It's more about the ASICs on the ports to handle high traffic rates. The NIC can send the packet on the wire, but inserting the IPv6 headers is done in hardware with ASICs. This is the difference between millions of packets per second versus tens of thousands.