Intel Working on mainstream Ethernet with 2.5G (Foxville ) controller

Might be a better idea if Ethernet is intergrated into the USB protocol.

Its time the industry consolidated some stuff.

 

This probably is mostly making sense for server farms etc., right? Can't really see this being immensely important for the end user, or am I wrong here?

 

It sure makes imaging computers faster when someone spills coffee purposefully on their computer, with their sinister gaze at us IT people saying "i think it's time for an upgrade".

 

Imagine NAS with SSD on board and 2,5gbps ethernet. If you need that kind of speed it would be perfect without investing in server grade hardware. There is really wide spectrum of needs in "end user" term.

 

Working with cat5e is really what is nice for the most part you just change your gear plugging your old cables on and you are good to go ! I think i have to see anything lower than cat5e for year's , i mean getting sold in a store, i am not going around checking friends cables

 

Numbers wise, of course, but what to do with all that bandwidth? This is only for commercial use, or what sense would it make? Or do you plan on having that NAS with SSDs for a whole building of people watching at the same time?

 

I don't know, backups, sending there and back uncompressed video or other stuff? If you can send some files for example in 10 minutes instead of 25 and it doesn't cost too much, question is: why not? I bet you would say same thing 20 years ago - "why we need 1gbps in homes if 100mbps is more than enough". Just progress, nothing wrong in it.

 

Never said there's anything wrong with it. Only that I don't see the real world use now. Sure, in 20 years we shall still use this or better. Doesn't mean I have to buy it as soon as it's out, for now. Just like with many other technologies which are faster in advancing than our making use of it. Like 8K TVs etc.

 

Yeah, I get your point, 8K TV's are really pointless right now as even 4K is not so popular but I think default ethernet in the end of 2019 should be faster than 1gbps. I can rent 1gbps connection from my ISP for only 50 bucks, I can buy SSD with 3GB/s transfers, new games are 100GB+ etc. There is need for greater speeds IMO.

 

I have 2.5gbps network in my home using a Trendnet TEG-30102WS switch and network cards and dongles based on Realtek RTL8125. It wasn't exactly cheap but not very expensive either.

All I can say is that's it's Won-Der-Ful ! Lower latency, much higher throughput than the 1gbps bottleneck which lasted for way, way too long.
Basically when accessing a file on the local computer or over the network... it's the same. I can even launch games over the network (Steamapps folder on a remote computer) and it works just as fast as if it was on my own gaming machine.

The most awesome part ? - It works on the same Cat 5 cables which existed in the walls, no infrastructure work whatsoever. Zero costs for rewiring !

 

.delete please

 

I disagree. That idea might be fine for a typical home network but beyond that, you're going to cause more problems than you hope to fix:
* USB has too much CPU overhead
* Most systems only have 1-2 XHCIs, where all of the USB ports you use are accessed via an internal hub. A USB-operated Ethernet is prone to either losing bandwidth, or, will soak up bandwidth from other devices. This isn't good if you care about consistent and reliable performance. This is only made worse since USB 3.2 and 4.0 can be used for so many other purposes like daisy-chaining and carrying video signals.
* If something brings down the host controller, you bring down the network with it. Seeing as USB is supposed to be easily accessible (from both hardware and software perspectives), that's not difficult to do.

I utterly hate the direction USB has been taking. It's trying so hard to be universal that it inadvertently ends up with compatibility issues.

 

I see this as a money grab as higher speeds have been around for a while. Just doing increments to a tech that's already easily accessible.

 

This is the real issue as i see it. Let's face it, most of the cabling in this old world is Cat5 and Cat5e. Replacing network infrastructure is expensive, prohibitively so for many people and businesses. Any time you are adding higher bandwidth capability to existing infrastructure, you are adding value in the form of extended service life and increased capacity. Most businesses would much rather replace some switches and transceivers than run fiber or Cat 7. I think that 2.5gig and 5 gig over Cat5e is going to be very popular for those very reasons. Let's not forget, Aquantia already got bought out by a bigger company (Marvell) because the industry tends to agree. I look forward to 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T replacing 1000BASE-T as the norm.

 

what annoys me most is how we have had multiple 5gbps usb ports for almost a decade now but reserving half a usb3 port for ethernet is just too much apparently

i mean even phones are getting over 1gbps and close to 2gbps with 5g now, this is crazy

 

I can't get 1gbps, so yeah... I guess in your case it makes sense, but... not 2.5
Still the question remains, what do you do with 1gbps? That's the basic question I haven't found a real answer to it. Maybe it will come with cloud gaming, but there not transfer rate but latency are the biggest issues... oh well, it comes, at some point it will make sense more widely.

 

I am able to get 1Gbps internet where I live, but that's the fastest internet available in the US except for a few very small areas. The purpose of 2.5Gbps+ at home is mostly for local network bandwidth and less for facilitating very fast internet at this point and for the foreseeable future. I'm glad to finally see that 2.5Gbps is becoming more mainstream, but I had really hoped 10Gbps would be the next step for home networks. Although some have stated it, I don't think cabling is the issue here. 10Gbps+ is already very common in companies for the core network. 10Gbps can run on Cat5e up to about 45 meters (not in the standard, but it works), Cat6 up to 55 meters, and Cat6a can run the full 100 meters. Cat7 cable is not recognized by the EIA/TIA, so I never recommend it.

For those who really want 10G+ at home, as I do, you can find excellent used 10Gbps enterprise grade equipment on eBay that is less expensive than consumer-oriented products. I have a 48 port 10Gbps switch at home that runs my network and a few 10Gbps cards in my computers. My switches also have some 40Gbps ports which I use to connect between them. Some 10Gbps used enterprise gear can be had for less than the cost of the new routers that tout "multi-gig" speeds on 1 or 2 LAN ports.

 

Most enterprises don't use 10G ethernet, they use fiber. Ethernet is really only for low-cost or small-scale solutions these days (so, a single 48 port switch in your case would count as small scale). Because of the tolerances, I'm not sure we're ever going to see anything faster than 5Gbps as a commodity.

But yeah, buying that old network hardware is great for a home LAN at a good price. I've considered doing the same.

 

You are correct. Most enterprises use fiber, but in some scenarios companies want to mix 1Gbps and 10Gbps in a single rack with one switch. Since a lot of 1Gbps network cards use copper, it makes sense to use copper for both in such scenarios. I'm sure there are other use cases as well, but that is likely the most common reason for switches like mine. I fully acknowledge that my network is small scale. As for Ethernet, it's actually a protocol that is media agnostic, so fiber, wireless, and all different types of copper cabling can carry Ethernet. In fact, Ethernet is the predominant protocol in companies and data centers. InfiniBand (Ethernet's primary competition) has largely been replaced by Ethernet even in the high-speed, low-latency sectors.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean regarding the tolerances. Most people buy pre-terminated cables for their networks, so they don't have to deal with the tight tolerances themselves. Fiber has also dropped in price significantly, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see that become more common in the home for those who want very high bandwidth.

You should! Most of the equipment is not plug-and-play, but if you have a decent amount of networking knowledge and persistence you can achieve excellent results. You can find 10Gbps dual-port SFP+ enterprise cards on eBay in the $20-$30 USD range. I also found you can get some dual-port Broadcom 10G copper cards for around $30-$40 USD. However, if you do go that route, be sure you research the specific card's you're looking at to ensure you can get them working with your computer and OS. Some of the HP cards specifically use a port that looks identical to standard PCI Express and even uses PCI Express signalling, but the pinout was adjusted to force vendor lock-in. Those cards cannot be made to work in a normal PC.