Networking

GigE support

One new technology that has really taken off in the past 12 months is Gigabit Ethernet networking. Once an expensive accessory that was only found on high-end workstations and servers, Gigabit Ethernet has become increasingly popular in conventional desktop PCs.

While many of today’s motherboards provide integrated Gigabit Ethernet controllers, these controllers are often tied to the PCI bus, which is limited to just 133MB/sec of peak bandwidth. With Gigabit Ethernet peaking at 1,000Mbps, the network controller alone can easily saturate the PCI bus on one of these motherboards.

NVIDIA’s nForce3 250Gb variant provides a dedicated 2Gbps bi-directional link (1.25Gbps actual each way to compensate for Ethernet overhead/1.0Gbps effective), maximizing the full potential of the controller. In addition, unlike Intel’s Communications Streaming Architecture (CSA), nForce3 250Gb integrates the Gigabit Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) into the chipset. This gives NVIDIA’s controller direct access to the system memory via HyperTransport. In comparison, Intel’s external MAC uses CSA at 266MB/sec, which then sends data to system RAM via the North Bridge. This should give NVIDIA a performance advantage over CSA.

Another advantage NVIDIA’s solution provides is an industry standard open interface for attaching external Gigabit Ethernet physical layer (PHY) transceivers. In case you haven’t noticed, motherboards that rely on Intel’s CSA only ship with PHY manufactured by one company: Intel. By using an open, non-proprietary interface, motherboard manufacturers can choose the solution they’d like to implement, whether it’s from 3Com, Broadcom, Marvell, etc. This increased flexibility leads to lower production costs, which are hopefully passed on to the consumer.

Firewall wizards for easy setup

Firewall software main menu

You can choose from predefined settings

NVIDIA Firewall

One additional feature nForce3 250Gb touts is Firewall support. Unlike many Firewalls which are software-based, nForce3 250Gb’s Firewall is a native hardware-optimized solution. This lowers CPU utilization and improves throughput and protection, as you don’t have to wait for a software solution to load. NVIDIA’s Firewall solution can filter packets based on predefined settings, or settings that the end user provides. NVIDIA’s Firewall supports stateless and stateful inspection as well as remote management, which is helpful for accessing, configuring, and monitoring your PC while you’re away.

Or customize parameters

Firewall customization

Monitoring statistics