Aquantia Announces Multi-Gig Ethernet Controllers, Coming Soon To ASUS Boards

[numacross]

SFP+ uses less power for copper direct-connection. I don't know about fiber, but IMO that's sort of apples-and-oranges.

Does that take into consideration EEE? Any sources on this comparison in general for direct-connection? I've seen both 10GBe RJ45 and SFP+ cards that have heatsinks, but I'm curious if anyone actually did proper measurements.

[coder]

I said that, the most likely usecase for multigigabit speeds is some kind of local NAS sharing files or doing backup server job or whatever.

I was trying to agree with you, if that's allowed.

[coder]

Does that take into consideration EEE? Any sources on this comparison in general for direct-connection? I've seen both 10GBe RJ45 and SFP+ cards that have heatsinks, but I'm curious if anyone actually did proper measurements.

I've been keeping an eye on this, for a while. The power utilization of SFP+ cards is usually <= half that of RJ-45. The RJ-45 cards need to drive the signal for longer distances, as well as doing more signal processing.

[starshipeleven]

I was trying to agree with you, if that's allowed.

I'll allow it.

[milkylainen]

Are you assuming people didn't install Cat5 or Cat5e also at later times because it was cheaper or something?

I'm not sure I follow you.
What I meant is that people likely to upgrade to 2,5 and 5 already have Cat5e.
Cat5e is almost 20 years old already. And you can run 10G on 5e, albeit only half the typical length of 100 meters.
50m for 10G should be enough for most installations.
Not a lot of installations have 150 something feet of cable between two phys that are in dire need of 1G+ and have not upgraded beyond cat5e already.

So why run multigig-special stuff when you probably can run 10G?
I'm not against choice, I just don't see how many would use multigig ethernet instead of 10G?

[starshipeleven]

I'm not against choice, I just don't see how many would use multigig ethernet instead of 10G?

From what I see, the 2.5 and 5G are being used as stepping stones to drive up mass production numbers of other network hardware (and demand I guess).

The main thing here that will make or break the deal is the availability of network switches (if not whole routers but I really doubt it) at consumer prices. So far I'm only seeing 8-port 10G switches at 600-700 euros, which is NOT really viable for consumer.

I assume that 2.5 or 5G switches will be cheaper and will eventually become cheaper, but I still have some doubts, people that actually have a NAS and need more than 100Mbit at home are uncommon in my experience. I really doubt that there is going to be a so massive demand for multi-gig devices or 10G as there was for Gigabit back in the day, so I understand them taking the long and safer route to avoid blowing all their budget on stuff that won't sell enough to make a profit.

[torsionbar28]

I suppose this is good news for somebody. I'm just realizing that it has been a long time since I've plugged into an Ethernet connection.

Tinker toy consumer devices are about the only things that don't require an ethernet connection. The rest of the world's infrastructure does.

[torsionbar28]

I'm not sure I follow you.
What I meant is that people likely to upgrade to 2,5 and 5 already have Cat5e.
Cat5e is almost 20 years old already. And you can run 10G on 5e, albeit only half the typical length of 100 meters.
50m for 10G should be enough for most installations.
Not a lot of installations have 150 something feet of cable between two phys that are in dire need of 1G+ and have not upgraded beyond cat5e already.

So why run multigig-special stuff when you probably can run 10G?
I'm not against choice, I just don't see how many would use multigig ethernet instead of 10G?

Cat5e is not certified to run 10g at *any* length. Certainly not anything close to 50 meters. You need Cat6 minimum for 50 meters, and Cat6a for the full 100m.

[edwaleni]

Are there that many ISPs able to provide enough speed for this? I totally get this for server environment, but what's the use for desktop?
I'm still on 100Mb/s on home network, pondered switching to 1gbit, there's just not enough benefit for desktop.

Comcast announced at CES in Las Vegas this week they are exploring 10GbE to the home.

[milkylainen]

Cat5e is not certified to run 10g at *any* length. Certainly not anything close to 50 meters. You need Cat6 minimum for 50 meters, and Cat6a for the full 100m.

You're right. Not certified. Neither is multigig 5G by TIA/EIA. But this is just signal math.
Afaik:

Cat5e cables were originally classified to be 200MHz for running 1G on 2 pairs by the standard.
The cable dimensions and layout was for 200MHz signal integrity. This was later reduced on paper to 100MHz for 4 pairs as a "headroom".
There is little difference between cat5e cabling and cat6 cabling for short lengths in reality.
Cat6 is better, but it's not to say that Cat5e is useless for 10G.
Cat6a is a different thing though.

A lot of Cat5e:s are split pair and NEXT, FEXT are good enough for shorter lengths.
2.5G and 5G was not certified for Cat5e either by EIA/TIA. 2.5G runs a slow rate for guaranteed 100m distances.
5G technically requires Cat6 if you want to push it to 100m since it requires 200MHz of spectral bw.
So full length will depend on your installation (Which likely is 100m since Cat5e was a 200MHz standard to begin with).
So running 10G on 5e is exactly how you ratify 5G with 200Mhz spectral bw on a "100MHz" 5e.

10G requires 200MHz spectral bw for ~half length. So absolutely not 100 meter on a Cat5e.
But looking at numbers you probably can come close to half length without any issues.
Modern Ethernet PHY transceivers have really advanced DSPs for equalization, pre, post, epmphasis, deemphasis.
They can make a signal out of total crap.
I have yet to fail running 10G on a quality solid core Cat5e cable. I have not run anything near 50 meters though. But something between 10-15 for sure.
I think if you calculate all the signal integrity degradation you'll come to ~45m for Cat5e (technically a 200MHz cable), ~55m for Cat6 (250MHz) and the full length for Cat6a. But as most stuff YMMV. Crap cables and PHYs are crap by any standard.