
Aquantia Launch AQtion 5G/2.5G/1G Multi-Gigabit Ethernet Cards for PCIe - jseliger
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11368/aquantia-launch-aqtion-5g25g1g-nics
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WatchDog
Im really surprised that >gb ethernet has taken so long to make it into the
consumer realm.

These NICs are a start, but there wont be wide adoption until >gb ethernet is
integrated into mainstream southbridges.

~~~
drewg123
Its kind of a chicken and egg problem. I'm not aware of any consumer 2.5/5G
switches, and 10Gbase-T switches are still more than 10x as expensive as 1Gb/s
switches.

There's also the lack of a compelling use case. Most consumer NAS boxes are
still based on spinning drives, and 1Gb/s is still a reasonable match for a
spinning drive.

I've had 10GbE equipment in my house for about 12 years (I worked remotely and
did drivers for one of the first 10GbE NICS), but I've never had > 1 Gb/s
equipment in anything but lab equipment. Eg, not in my home desktop / NAS
server, etc.

~~~
ojbyrne
There are some NASs with 2x1 GB ethernet connections, which suggests to me
there's at least some demand.

~~~
sethhochberg
I'd bet that's actually a part of what is restricting general demand for
1gbit+ NICs on consumer gear. How many consumer or prosumer applications
actually exist where 1gbit/sec isn't sufficient, but a pair of bonded
1gbit/sec NICs _still_ isn't enough? Link aggregation is commonly enough
supported and easy enough to configure for the kind of audience who needs it
that I suspect this covers much of the demand which might otherwise be served
by 5gbit or 10gbit NICs natively.

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faragon
I'll wait until Realtek releases a 3 USD 5-Gbit ethernet NIC chip.

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fulafel
So are there competing standards for 2.5, 5 and 10G over copper or are the
copper standards flexible so you will be able to connecto to standard 10G
switches with slower speeds?

And why is sub-5G interesting, isn't the performance end of ethernet at
40G/100G since years ago?

~~~
profmonocle
Because 2.5G works over 100 meters of cat5e and 5G works over 100 meters cat6,
so this can be used on existing cabling that's currently limited to 1G.

This doesn't really matter in data centers and backbones (which is where you
see 40G/100G), but it can be useful in access networks (offices, classrooms,
etc.) where the business doesn't want to replace existing cable plant.

~~~
maxmouchet
Also 2.5G is interesting for 802.11ac Wi-Fi APs that provides bandwidth >1G.
No need for port aggregation.

~~~
kayoone
Net bandwidth on 802.11ac is nowhere near real 1Gbps though. Most i got out of
a good 802.11ac AP that claimed 1,3Gbps was ~500-600Mbps in the real world on
very close distance and it falls off pretty fast. Even the ones claiming
nearly 2Gbps can't reach real 1Gbps afaik. Still very nice, but Wifi has a lot
of overhead.

~~~
devonkim
The problem is that a lot of access points advertise n Gbps but that refers to
full system bandwidth on multiple channels and such so you got somewhere close
to what they were really expecting you to get. Heck, my Ubiquiti Unifi AC Pro
can get me a bit over 800 Mbps without a problem in bursts (and it advertises
well over 2 Gbps) but the nature of wifi networks is that I won't get that
sustained for very long. For home server uses that most people don't have, I
absolutely won't be able to work off a pure wireless network for many reasons.

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eggsome
Cheaper to get an Intel copy direct from China: [http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-
Intel-X540-T1-OEM-10G-RJ45-1-Po...](http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-
Intel-X540-T1-OEM-10G-RJ45-1-Port-S-Ethernet-Converged-Network-
Adapter-/292072461278?hash=item4400e013de%3Ag%3A1LoAAOSwCU1Y3mAj&_trkparms=pageci%253A461441e3-39f6-11e7-98af-74dbd1804a97%257Cparentrq%253A0fac18e815c0a88b091063a2fffecae6%257Ciid%253A4)

(Obviously you don't get the adavantage of long range at lower speeds, but the
vast majority of people just want faster data transfer in the same room).

~~~
drewg123
There seem to be genuine, but used, 10G NICs from many vendors under $40
(Myricom, Mellanox, Chelsio) which might be a cheaper option for a home lab
setup. Even 10Gbase-SR SFP+ modules are cheap used, but for a 2 card setup,
I'd go CX4 or SFP-DA / Twinax. Most of the failures we see at work in the
field around 10GbE or 40GbE hardware is the SFP+ / QSFP modules.

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yuhong
The fun thing is that the 802.3bz standard don't refer to Cat5e or Cat6 but
describe the requirements in the standard itself. I wonder if this is due to
marketing, for example see Kamal Dalmia's comment in:
[http://www.anandtech.com/comments/10908/aquantia-launches-
ne...](http://www.anandtech.com/comments/10908/aquantia-launches-
new-2g-5g-multi-gigabit-network-controllers-for-pcs)

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rektide
Hmm. I thought that 2.5Gbit was going to be a single channel. It appears the
final 802.3bz spec is 4 channels, basically a 10Gbit at lower clocks. I didn't
expect this.

Would be interesting to know more on the tradeoffs between the two approaches.
How much silicon does four channels going 1/4 take, and using how much power,
versus a single higher speed channel?

~~~
wmf
Running at lower frequency is how 2.5G can get longer range on cheap cables.

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drewg123
Does anybody know what the power draw is for 10Gb/s mode? The early 10Gbase-T
phys pulled ~10w. I know things have gotten considerably better, as I'm
finding press releases from 2013 talking about ~1.5w. Has that improved any?

~~~
drewg123
Found their datasheet too late to edit the above: "6 W at 10 Gbps, 4W at 5
Gbps" from [http://www.aquantia.com/wp-
content/uploads/AQN-107%20Brief%2...](http://www.aquantia.com/wp-
content/uploads/AQN-107%20Brief%20051117.pdf)

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cnvogel
What's that supposed to mean? Binary only, closed source kernel module?

>>> Drivers for both cards will be available ... as well as varieties of Linux
(3.10, 3.12, 3.2, 4.2 and 4.4).

~~~
wmf
The Linux driver is upstream although they may also provide backports.

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user5994461
>>> Today's announcement cements Aquantia's lead in the multi-gigabit Ethernet
space, despite already having an apparent 2 year lead over other rivals in
this space.

Going into a market that everyone avoided on purpose is not a lead.

The cards are worthless without the adequate switches, that will never happen
because the effort is on 10 gb.

