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posted by martyb on Thursday December 15 2016, @07:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the they-are-just-using-extra-tiny-bits dept.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10908/aquantia-launches-new-2g-5g-multi-gigabit-network-controllers-for-pcs

At the time in 2015, the 2.5G/5G standards were not yet ratified by IEEE. There were chips in the market, solely from Aquantia, for enterprise configurations that were happy to go with an evolving standard for their solution. From September 2016 this changed, and the standards have been ratified with Aquantia, Intel, Cisco and others all involved in the specification. Aquantia's earlier generation silicon adhered to the standard, and has been deployed in a number of enterprise backbone deployments to the tune of 5M ports a year. Today's announcement surrounds the launch of two new controllers based on the multi-gigabit standards aimed at more consumer level solutions – specifically 'client connectivity in enterprise, gaming and SMB applications'.

[...] For now, the AQtion 2.5G/5G controllers coming to market look to be a premium component, destined for high-end notebooks/PCs, and if the pricing is right, more expansive than the current array of 10G integrated options. One of the issues Aquantia will have, which they also acknowledge, is the switch problem that currently stops 10G being more widespread – the lack of consumer grade and consumer budget level switches. We were told that there are some enterprise models of 2.5G/5G switches currently for more backbone type of work, and it will be up to Aquantia's partners to spot opportunities in the consumer market. From a personal perspective, the switch side of the equation will be the slowest to change and be a defining aspect for the widespread adoption of this technology. We've seen this with 10G, or the fact that the Killer gaming NICs do not have corresponding switches/routers to assist in a number of features that might become irrelevant in a general network. Publicly Aquantia isn't stating which switch developers they are working with, and as before, leaving those companies to decide/announce their product lines, but I think the switch aspect will be more important to watch over 2017.

On performance metrics, Aquantia have told us that the AQ107 can achieve 9.5 Gbps in each direction in the 10G mode with a CPU utilization of 12-20%, and in 5G mode it can do 4.6 Gbps in each direction with 6-14% CPU use. Due to the higher clock rate of the controller, in 1G mode the controller is quoted as having has[sic] lower latency than standard 1G controllers. The AQC107, in 5G mode, will have a typical power consumption around 3W when in use.

Does anybody here need this caliber of Ethernet at home?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @10:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @10:19PM (#441815)

    For home use, streaming media is the big one. Generally, you are going to need 100Mb or so to properly manage BD data rates. On a good day, I will see real world performance around 90Mb for Wireless N assuming all is right. Wireless AC is better but most people have terrible AP placement so you only do a bit better than N; I see 100 - 120Mb AC performance in a moderately busy environment with normal room obstructions. To get sustained data rates for 4k resolution streams and beyond, you are going to need multi-GB shared spectrum availability. It's like bringing Gb fiber to people's houses: most people may not need it today, but, 5 years from now, I'm sure it will be necessary to make some technology work.