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To take advantage of gigabit over copper, your server needs gigabit-over-copper NICs. SysKonnect's SK-9822 card is an ace in the hole. By Joel Conover

When we began our tests, we solicited gigabit-over-copper NICs from Alteon WebSystems, Intel, Sun Microsystems, SysKonnect and 3Com. Only Intel and SysKonnect could pony up a product, with Alteon backing out because it didn't want to compete against Intel's beta product. As of press time, the 3Com product is an Alteon OEM card. Sun Microsystems simply said it didn't want its products to be part of any competitive tests.

In our two-vendor NIC shoot-out, SysKonnect's card was the clear winner. Intel's early beta card showed promise, but some outstanding driver issues caused the card to behave improperly under high receive-traffic loads.

We tested both vendors' cards in a Compaq Computer Corp. ML-530 enterprise workgroup server with dual 800-MHz Pentium III Xeon processors and 640 MB of RAM. Using Ganymede Software's Chariot 3.2 testing software, we connected a dozen PCs as clients and hammered the server with TCP-based file copy traffic (simulated using Chariot's filesndl script) to determine maximum server throughput. We made no changes to the operating system other than to install the latest NIC drivers and service packs.

SysKonnect SK-9822 1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet

SysKonnect has a reputation for making high-quality server-class products for enterprise applications, and the SK-9822 is no exception. SysKonnect's gigabit-over-copper adapter is available in single- and dual-port configurations. We tested the single-port version and took a quick look at the dual-port adapter. Both adapters feature the same hardware and performance figures. The dual-port adapter offers additional hardware failover fault-tolerance. SysKonnect claims the product has hardware failover times of roughly 100 milliseconds.

The SysKonnect 9822 adapter is a 64-bit, 66-MHz PCI card with fallback to 64/33, 32/66 and 32/33 operation modes. We installed the NIC in a 64-bit, 66-MHz slot on our Compaq ML-530 server and ran it through its paces. We used the card's DOS-based diagnostics tool to verify that the card was running in 64/66 mode; SysKonnect doesn't offer a Microsoft Windows-based diagnostics tool.

The SysKonnect NIC performed admirably in our tests. The card had a maximum throughput of 860 Mbps, which was measured in our Microsoft Windows NT 4 receive throughput test. In transmit mode, the card sustained throughput of 432 Mbps (Linux) to 649 Mbps (Novell NetWare), and 492 Mbps (Linux) to 860 Mbps (Windows NT 4) in receive mode. Intel's offering was slightly faster, with a top speed of 938 Mbps, and generally slightly faster throughput, but also had slightly higher CPU utilization. We tested the SysKonnect card using a 100-meter Category 5E cable run through a pair of patch panels and found that it performed flawlessly even at maximum distance.

The SysKonnect 9822 features 1 MB of on-board memory, and has quite a few features that enhance performance and fault-tolerance. These include dual-voltage (3.3 volt or 5 volt) support; driver and hardware support for TCP, UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and IP Checksum off-loading; support for jumbo frames; 802.1p and 802.1Q class of service and VLAN tagging; and on-board temperature and voltage sensors. The card also supports PCI hot-plug specifications. SysKonnect offers a huge range of driver support, including drivers for Apple Computer MacOS; FreeBSD 3.0 and later; Hewlett-Packard HP-UX; IBM's AIX; Linux 2.x and later; Microsoft Windows NT 4 (alpha and x86), Windows 2000, Windows 95 and Windows 98; Novell NetWare Client32 for DOS and NetWare Server versions 3.12 through 5.x; SCO UnixWare; and Sun Solaris (x86 and SPARC architectures).

As we were testing, SysKonnect was close to releasing a new driver that will enable both ports on the dual-port card to function simultaneously. Link aggregation and trunking will be an integral part of the new driver suite. Currently, you must run third-party software to handle link aggregation and failover across multiple NICs. The hardware failover (dual-port NIC option) requires no special drivers.

SK-9822 1000Base-T Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet, $1,595, SysKonnect, (800) 716-3334 or (800) 752-3334, www.syskonnect.com or sales@syskonnect.com.

Intel Corp. Pro/1000 T Server Adapter

Intel's Pro/1000 T Server Adapter is Intel's second-generation Gigabit Ethernet NIC. Like SysKonnect's SK-9822, Intel's Pro/1000 T is a 64-bit, 66-MHz PCI product.

We tested an early beta version of Intel's Pro/1000 adapter. This beta version had drivers only for Windows 2000, NetWare 5.1 and Windows NT 4. Intel's previous-generation card also offered support for Linux, Intel Architecture Solaris and SCO UnixWare. These drivers are expected to be available on the Pro/1000 T Server Adapter later this year. However, with full link aggregation and fault-tolerance for multiple adapters as an integral part of the driver, Intel's driver suite has a leg up on SysKonnect's.

During our tests, we discovered some autonegotiation issues with the Pro/1000 T adapter and our Extreme Summit 7i and Cisco Catalyst 6506 switches. In Extreme's case, the fault was due to prerelease Broadcom PHY components in the Summit 7i we tested. However, we could not explain the problem with the Cisco switch. Some of these problems also may be because Intel doesn't use the Broadcom PHY chip in its design. Perhaps another good reason to stick with fiber.

In the lab, Intel's card was a real screamer, though we ran into some beta driver issues with certain traffic types. After a quick workaround from Intel, we obtained reliable performance data on the Pro/1000 T Server Adapter. In our throughput tests, the Intel card benchmarked throughput of 751, 938 and 752 Mbps for transmit, receive and bidirectional throughput (respectively) under Windows NT. Performance under Windows 2000 was lower by 75 to 225 Mbps. NetWare throughput also was lower, posting a top speed of 711 Mbps.

Like the SysKonnect card, Intel's offering supports all the features you need in a gigabit environment, including hot-plug PCI, jumbo frame support, VLAN tagging, IP and 802.1p QoS, and 802.1Q VLAN tagging. Intel's product passed our 100-meter distance test with no problems.

Intel Pro/1000 T Server Adapter, pricing not yet announced, Intel Corp., (800) 628-8686, (408) 765-8080; fax (408) 765-9904, www.intel.com.

Send your comments on this article to Joel Conover at jconover@nwc.com.