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CIS 150 Kennedy Spr. 98 |
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William Merritt |
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CIS 150 Kennedy Spr. 98 |
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William Merritt |
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Conclusion
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The Ethernet NIC is everything I expected and more. The card itself is rather simple in design and the engineering principals already in place have standardized the components. I have found that many of the components of a Ethernet NIC can be purchased directly from many manufactures. The differences between competing vendors of Ethernet NICs are the drivers that are used to implement an Ethernet system. Most of the work has to do with the drivers for the system. The fact that a NIC MAC component can bypass the local machines CPU is fascinating in its approach. The combination of the correct Bus interface, PHY, MII (if present) and MAC insures a low CPU utilization. Noting that all of these components work together to produce a system that can be virtually invisible to the local machine in its use. I have enjoyed delving into the particulars of the Ethernet system and have gained more knowledge than I thought would be available on this subject. I have even been introduced to the next step in the Ethernet evolution, Gig Ethernet. Though I have not included Gig Ethernet in this paper I plan on pursuing this subject in the near future. |
