Tarjetas de red para PCI-X 10 Gbps de velocidad de datos máxima

How to Get Gigabits of Downstream Transfer

One of the keys to any network is the data transfer rate. The more bits you can move per second, the better off your client are going to be.

What's the Difference Between PCI, PCI-X, and PCI-Express?

The three letters PCI stand for peripheral component interconnect and refer to a number of different communications standards used in the internal architecture of computers. They include both parallel and serial protocols at wildly varying speeds. The three different architectures to use the name are:

  • PCI: The original PCI bus features a total of 133 MBps of bandwidth between all the devices on the bus. It normally runs at 32 bits and 33 MHz and quite simply cannot support gigabit level transfer rates.
  • PCI-X: Designed primarily for servers as a way to get around the limits of existing PCI cards, PCI-eXtended offers native 64-bit support and bus speeds of up to 133 MHz, provided you only use one of your PCI-X slots. Filling more slots with cards lowers your speed and thus your data transfer capability.
  • PCI-Express: Also known as PCI-E, PCI Express is a completely different serial protocol that allows for high transfer rates by ganging multiple independent connections, called lanes, together.

What Does PCI-X Give You?

One huge advantage you can get from high speed PCI-X network cards is the ability to access more network interfaces than simple PCI cards. You can leverage the high internal transfer rate to connect multiple different network interfaces on a single card so that one PCI-X NIC can service both electronic and optical connections from a single adapter. Some of the available interfaces include:

  • RJ45: Used primarily for Gigabit Ethernet, this is the same port you find on home computers. Its big benefit is compatibility as the cable is everywhere.
  • SFP: Small form-factor pluggable connections accept interchangeable ports that can handle either optical or copper connections. It's a way to increase flexibility by letting you use multiple protocols from one slot.
  • InfiniBand: While uncommon, InfiniBand is a very high speed interface used primarily for supercomputers and clusters. It's very fast, but not compatible with TCP/IP and other network protocols.

Choosing a PCI-X Card

The first thing to do when choosing a PCI-X card is to make sure your system has PCI-X slots as it's a significantly less common slot than PCI Express. You also want to make sure the card supports your chosen network architecture, which is where SFP comes into play as it lets you populate a motherboard slot without locking yourself into any specific interface or architecture. With speeds of 10 Gbps downstream these cards can pack a lot of data onto any connection.

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