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

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Michael]

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

It works with existing cabling.

[Jabberwocky]

they focus on cheap designs and low power, Aquantia (or Intel for that matter) is not. They have shown a 2.5Gb chipset that is likely to go in Asrock gaming boards (that said they are going to use 2.5 Gb eth) in the near future.

If they don't suck balls (which isn't certain, because reasons), next year they are probably going to roll in all high end boards, and the year after that we should be seeing 5Gb

Asrock already has a few motherboards with various different Aquantia chipsets.

I had an Asrock Fatal1ty Pro Gaming x370 that had AQC-108 (5 GbE). I upgraded a few months ago to X470 Taichi Ultimate with AQC-107 10GbE, but Linux driver does not give 10GbE links at this stage. Seems like I am not the only person seeing this.

I have it plugged out at this moment *eeek*

# lspci | grep Aqu
2d:00.0 Ethernet controller: Aquantia Corp. AQC107 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet Controller [AQtion] (rev 02)

# ethtool enp45s0
Settings for enp45s0:
Supported ports: [ TP ]
Supported link modes: 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
10000baseT/Full
2500baseT/Full
5000baseT/Full
Supported pause frame use: Symmetric
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Supported FEC modes: Not reported
Advertised link modes: 100baseT/Full
1000baseT/Full
10000baseT/Full
2500baseT/Full
5000baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
Speed: Unknown!
Duplex: Full
Port: Twisted Pair
PHYAD: 0
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
MDI-X: Unknown
Link detected: no

I have not been pushing my NIC that hard. I mostly use it for testing ceph/k8s and single player parts of my steam library. I might also do "security cam" recoding at some stage. I have looked at various PCI-E versions of AQC107, but found complaints of both Gigabyte and Asus so went for Aquantia AQtion in my older system. I would not mind having high speed USB based NICs though. If I could upgrade my openwrt raspberry pi 1 model b with some low-power system /w 10GbE that would be great!

[ThoreauHD]

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

[starshipeleven]

Does Realtek offer 5Gb? If not, I wonder why.

they focus on cheap designs and low power, Aquantia (or Intel for that matter) is not. They have shown a 2.5Gb chipset that is likely to go in Asrock gaming boards (that said they are going to use 2.5 Gb eth) in the near future.

If they don't suck balls (which isn't certain, because reasons), next year they are probably going to roll in all high end boards, and the year after that we should be seeing 5Gb