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Killer NIC Hands-On Testing
basscomm writes "IGN has gotten their hands on the 'Killer' NIC recently mentioned here on Slashdot and have written a two part article detailing their impressions: 'The performance boost we got out of the Killer NIC in this testing exceeds Bigfoot Networks' own claims of 10-15% gains by a long shot and certainly seems to validate the potential of the technology. We suspect, however, that the fact that these computers were marginal at running F.E.A.R. in the first place had an impact in the comparison. In many cases the non-Killer NIC machine became absolutely bogged down as particles flew and grenades exploded, enough so that the entire machine would hang for a moment as things got sorted out. Obviously this murdered average fps figures.'"
Killer NICs, hanging machines, framerates getting murdered ... oh, Jack Thompson, you were right all along!
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
Yes it runs Linux...
If you did a double take at the spec's of the Killer NIC's NPU you weren't alone. It's dramatically overkill for common networking processing that the card will encounter. That doesn't mean it's useless, however. Far from it, as a matter of fact. The Killer NIC is actually running an onboard Linux build that handles all its networking duties, and, best of all, is entirely accessible to the end user via console prompt or with what Bigfoot Networks is calling Flexible Network Applications (FNA).
Now, does it run *IN* Linux? Probably not.
This is a pretty cool concept - a self-contained VM in hardware to handle your whole networking stack.
It could have potential security benefits as well, in that it would likely be impossible to use say a buffer overflow exploit in a networking protocol with this card, because the overflow would occur *inside the VM*. All that would happen is your NIC would suddenly die - not *great*, but better than having your machine compromized. The host OS could probably even detect this lockup and 'reboot' the VM on the card.
We suspect, however, that the fact that these computers were marginal at running F.E.A.R. in the first place had an impact in the comparison.
Which is why spending 300 bucks on a NIC is such a retarded move. Why not spend that money to upgrade the video card, or add more ram, or do something that's going to bring the level of the machine up a few notches?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
The whole point of the thing is **there is no OS TCP/IP stack**.
The whole networking stack runs directly on the card. 100% of all networking load is offloaded from your main CPU onto the CPU on the card.
It is **supposed** to 'intercept incoming 'ping' requests and respond from it's TCP/IP stack immediately'.
Did you check out the pic of the NIC?
2 9557/VGPocketCaplet008_1156985853.jpg2 9557/VGPocketCaplet005_1156985833.jpg2 9557/VGPocketCaplet023_1156985931.jpg
http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/article/729/7
http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/article/729/7
http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/article/729/7
You could use the "K" shaped heatsink as a Shuriken and kill someone with it.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
What about the snake oil of being incredibly self-important without reading the article and blithely dismissing the product? Maybe this little gem, straight from the article will deflate your little bubble of self-righteousness:
Pings were relatively similar to the standard box, though we did notice latency spikes much less often on the Killer NIC'ed machine.
So yeah....you are so right. They are merely bypassing the cpu with ping requests, and somehow that is magically giving them higher fps and a smoother gameplay experience.
You know, this whole "I'm holier than thou without even reading the article" bs on slashdot is getting really tiresome(I have fallen into the same pit many times myself, I know) It really does inhibit intelligent debate about the article and just makes people feel so much more pompous(as evidenced by frequent use of such words as "snake oil") Oy....
Monstar L
Awright, color me ignorant but I'm not finding a whole lot of technical info on this so I'll ask the crowd:
How is this different than any other high-end NIC with onboard processor?
By this I am referring to the high-capacity NICs which have been made for the server market for many years by various companies. E.g. Intel has had a series of NICs for ages which have (if I recall correctly) an onboard i860 CPU, RAM etc and it's own little OS in firmware to offload the number crunching from the OS. (And a damn tiny set of drivers as well since all that code was on the board instead of the driver files).
As near as I can tell this is just like any other of these NICs only somebody slapped some pretty graphics and plastic doodads on it and tripled the price.
Or am I completely off base and this really is a quantum leap in areas other than marketing...?
Or at the very least, Barely Legal #8.
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?