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Can an XT benefit with 32KB NIC buffer?

Mike Chambers said:
You might want to look into the 3C509-TP. They are EASILY available all over the place. It's a 16-bit card but it works in an 8-bit slot too, but needs a hacked packet driver to work on an 8088. (I can provide it if you get one, or if you just use a V20 I think the regular driver works)

I don't know the exact amount of buffer RAM, but it's a lot newer than most of the cards you'd find in an 8088. I suspect it's got a pretty large amount. Probably 32 KB.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify;

Only the 3C509B works in an 8 bit slot. The older non-B variants need a 16 bit slot.
The B variants have a 32 KB buffer, the non-B only 4 KB.

They both do only port I/O so a NEC V20 processor would be preferable BUT nestor's "hacked" driver will not benefit from a V20 processor and the original driver will not work at all with anything less than a 286.

You would also need an AT machine to configure the card (change the IRQ) before using it in an XT.
 
luvit said:
MikeB, I disagree on the 'overthinking this' statement. It's a learning process and that statement is sometimes used in an over-generalized way, perhaps not written the same way as I read it. As you said in an earlier post in this thread -- if I demand best performance, I'll look for buffer. Your two posts are sort of contradicting posts.
I'll review your card recommendations.. at first glance, I don't think the NE1000 is more than 8kb.
In other threads, you state you have higher performing cards with higher buffers, can you please share the make and models you personally use?
I'm not sure if my use of the NIC will be casual.. so I'm choosing the best.
Click to expand...

Stay away from the NE1000. Far, far away. It might be the worst-performing card I've ever used.
 
Krille said:
Just to clarify;

Only the 3C509B works in an 8 bit slot. The older non-B variants need a 16 bit slot.
The B variants have a 32 KB buffer, the non-B only 4 KB.

They both do only port I/O so a NEC V20 processor would be preferable BUT nestor's "hacked" driver will not benefit from a V20 processor and the original driver will not work at all with anything less than a 286.

You would also need an AT machine to configure the card (change the IRQ) before using it in an XT.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. I thought I might have got the specific model wrong, I had a quick look around for one that worked in my XT that I thought was sitting around here somewhere to be sure but couldn't find it.

Yes, sometimes the IRQ might have to be changed. It can be a bit of a hassle to set it up by swapping it to another machine, but the performance is amazing. I think it's the best ethernet performance I've gotten on an 8088 so far.
 
Mike Chambers said:
I haven't verified this on real hardware yet, but when I recompile Fake86 without support for 80186/V20 instructions 3C5X9CFG.EXE still runs just fine in it. It should work an a real 8088 as-is.
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Did you ever verify this? Looking at that thread I realized 3C5X9CFG.EXE might just work on an XT after all?
 
Mike Chambers said:
Stay away from the NE1000. Far, far away. It might be the worst-performing card I've ever used.
Click to expand...

You really need to qualify statements like that.

My own measurements from http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/mTCP_Performance.html show that an NE1000 is the worst of the cards. It can only transfer at 60KB/sec while a 3Com 3C503 can transfer at around 90KB/sec. A 50% difference seems horrible.

However, NE1000s were dirt cheap and common. And everything supported them. Those are some pretty nice attributes. And we are not talking about orders of magnitude in difference on performance. When you use a real world application like FTP, the network card becomes less of an issue.

So is it slow? Yes. But if you are throwing any away, I'll take them.
 
luvit said:
MikeB, I disagree on the 'overthinking this' statement. It's a learning process and that statement is sometimes used in an over-generalized way, perhaps not written the same way as I read it. As you said in an earlier post in this thread -- if I demand best performance, I'll look for buffer. Your two posts are sort of contradicting posts.
I'll review your card recommendations.. at first glance, I don't think the NE1000 is more than 8kb.
In other threads, you state you have higher performing cards with higher buffers, can you please share the make and models you personally use?
I'm not sure if my use of the NIC will be casual.. so I'm choosing the best.
Click to expand...

You can put whatever effort you want into it. But for somebody just getting started on a project, getting something that works is the first goal. Getting hung up on performance before you transfer your first byte seems a bit like putting the cart before the horse.
 
I really appreciate your knowledge, mike. I'm only going to buy one nic and that's a good thing.
I really am curious on which nics you have in your vintage machines. Can you please share that info?
 
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All of the above?

There is a link in my previous post ...
 
mbbrutman said:
So is it slow? Yes. But if you are throwing any away, I'll take them.
Click to expand...

Of course so would I, but obviously he's looking for a well-performing card so I am just offering him sound advice. ;)

There are other much faster cards that are well-supported and also cheap/easy to acquire.
 
This thread is has shown interest and I have very much accepted EVERYONE's observations, facts, recommendations, and ideas. I've also received PMs.
The more direct the answers were to my question and interest, the more useful of a reply it was.
I'm beyond the age of been there, done that, slapping things together and simply getting typical or good results.
My interests are not "gee, i got an cool old PC to show my confused friends or family".
This is the forum where these discussions are expected to be embraced. For the most part.. that has happened.
I do look forward to more discussion on this. I'll be letting you all know which card i have secured for my XT when that happens :)
 
Krille said:
........ 3C5X9CFG.EXE might just work on an XT after all?
Click to expand...

A long time back i used a 3C509B in my XT 5160 solely for the boot rom socket to home the XTIDE bios, IIRC 3C5X9CFG.EXE ran fine in my 5160, I do remember having to plug the card in an AT machine to set the card up to work in the XT initially.
 
yeah, i expect to see some of that jumperless configuration situations.
like when i would configure jumperless modems in a windows machine and then drop it into linux, years ago.
 
is the 3c509B memory mapped i/o?
I'm about to pull the trigger on some nic purchases and the 3c509B is an option.. I wonder how it would compare to that WD8003E.
I'm still sticking with the XT's native processor
 
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