[ale] RE: [OT?][ale] smart routers?

[Mike Panetta]

I hate to burst your bubble, but I seriously doubt that you will ever be
able to get the throughput that exists in specilized router hardware by
using generic PC hardware.  If you only needed to route between 2 or 3
different networks, at no greater then 100Mb Ethernet speeds then a PC
(as is) should be fine.  Once you get into routing multiple 1000Mb
ethernet (not to mention the new 10Gb ethernet that has just been
standerdized) you will need to do what the big cisco routers do, and
route in hardware using specilized crossbar switch circuits and
whatnot.  It may suprise you, but most high end Cisco equipment has a
dinky CPU in it.  Even the low end stuff (say a T1 router, the 2xxx
series) only has a CPU as powerful as a 286 (a 68360 to be exact), the
higher end routers only have CPU's as powerful as a Pentium 1 in them
(in fact, an Ascend router I looked in had a P100 in it, and it could
route over 32 10/100 networks at once, thats 32000Mb/s throughput!). 
All the routing work in the higher end routers is pushed off into
hardware.  PCI bus will never be able to have the bandwidth (not to
mention latency issues) that would be required to route that kind of
traffic...

Mike

On Tue, 2002-08-06 at 19:29, Stephen Turner wrote:
> sorry to take such a large message but my post is in relation to all :)
> anyways, i was looking into turning a pc into an industrial strength
> router but it seems that the pci bus limits it to 33 mhz which is pitiful
> compared to routers. just as well i wouldnt want to include a full fledged
> computer in the mix, i looked at some embeded and sbc's and they didnt
> turn up much either, very limited in thier support for my idea, ive come
> to the conclusion a new mother board or sbc will need to be constructed
> using cheep pc parts and with the ability to use pci card slots they will
> be quite expandable and versetile, i believe with a design i have in
> progress i can have a 1u supporting a wider range of ports and many more
> ports than current routers however by what i hear to fully deck it out
> would be quite over kill. :) needless to say im looking into it, i wonder
> how long this project will last tho, in most cases i find a dead end and
> quit. if i can get this going tho by theory it would offer much more
> through put and flexability and give networking a power it has yet to see
> :) yet just one more step on the evolutionary ladder of computers eh? my
> objective is to get a 1u pc to replace a router and be better in every
> way. not sure if its possible but eh, :) and with the wide range in
> vendors it should make routers cheeper. i hope :-p
> 
> 
> 



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