Which Ethernet Card To Use?

[John Romkey]

In article <1990Sep26.192939.17819 at looking.on.ca> brad at looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
>How does the performance of the 8 bit version compare with the 16 bit
>version (WD8013, I believe?) of this card?  How much more system load does
>the 8 bit card generate.

Yes, WD8013.

The 16 bit card performs "noticeably" better in other applications
I've used it in. I don't have any numbers. Drivers do need to
specifically enable 16 bit mode on the 16 bit card, though. This is
pretty easy to do, but if the driver doesn't do it, you won't get the
performance increase.

Also, the 16 bit card is support to support 0 or 1 wait states on the
16 bit bus, which is fewer than it can handle on the 8 bit bus. 

>(I am surprised at the number of 8 bit ethernet
>cards out there, considering the fact that I would think very few of them
>are destined for 8088 based systems)

Actually, most ethernet cards until recently have been 8 bit. The
first 16 bit card was the 3COM 3c505 intelligent card, which was a
real dog. For a while, the only cards that were 16 bits were
intelligent cards; I guess the manufacturers decided that they should
have 16 bit I/O because they were positioned in the high end of the
market. Also, network performance is more of an issue now than it was
a few years ago.

>What are the WD Etherlink cards?  A completely different generation of
>card?

EtherLink usually refers to 3COM's 3C501; EtherLink II usually refers
to 3COM's 3C503. I can't remember what glossy-name WD uses for their
cards.
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			- john romkey
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