5/2.5Gb Ethernet To USB Aquantia AQtion Driver Coming For Linux 4.21

[bradh352]

Unless this uses old cat5e cabling, I don't understand the purpose of this rather that the 10 gbit we currently have.

Yes, that's the point. 2.5GbE over existing Cat5e up to 100m. 5GbE over Cat6 up to 100m. 10GbE requires Cat6A for 100m, but on "good quality" Cat6 deployments you can get 10GbE over Cat6 up to 35-55m.

[starshipeleven]

Unless this uses old cat5e cabling, I don't understand the purpose of this rather that the 10 gbit we currently have.

A thing to keep in mind for higher-than-Gb ethernet isn't the cabling (Cat5 gives like 50m that is plenty for home use for 2.5Gb), it's the termination sockets in the wall plug. You may need to replace the current ones with sockets certified for 5 or 10 Gb (eventually as they come out) or buy high quality sockets right now, as the standards are more stringent, and I've already found this out the hard way a few times.

Also crappy termination sockets can screw with normal Gbit eth too, but you really need to cheap out for this to be an issue.

[edwaleni]

Netgear has NBASE-T switches that support both 2.5 and 5GbE for under $250. A little more if want a 10Gb GBIC slot.

Aquantia based NBASE-T single port PCIe adapters are at $35.

I am about to upgrade my 1GbE networks to NBASE. Today's silicon can adaptively adjust data rates to the quality of the your cable.

The quality of the twist of various brands of cable will determine your actual rate.

[Zan Lynx]

It was a rumor I heard that Intel and others are planning to build all their 2019 integrated NICs as 2.5 or even 5 Gbps. I'm not sure of the reliability of that story. But the driver circuitry is very similar to 6 Gbps SATA anyway, so it isn't exactly difficult. It just hasn't been a standard speed.

[coder]

I might also do "security cam" recoding at some stage.

If your security cam requires even > 100 Mbps, then it will quickly burn through a ton of storage. Even at high-resolution, modern codecs are good enough at much lower bitrates than that.

If I could upgrade my openwrt raspberry pi 1 model b with some low-power system /w 10GbE that would be great!

1. Get this: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/J5005-ITX/index.asp
2. Install 5 Gbps AQtion in the x1 PCIe slot.
3. ???
4. Profit!

[coder]

the driver circuitry is very similar to 6 Gbps SATA anyway, so it isn't exactly difficult. It just hasn't been a standard speed.

That doesn't sound right.

Also, higher speeds almost certainly require heavier signal processing -> bigger die -> more expensive. This will likely roll in like all other technology transitions - at the high-end and gradually trickle down.