Re: S-parameter test sets

"Rich Grise" <richgrise@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.06.29.18.25.15.857356@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Of course, it's been some years since I've used a modem - I presume
> that the 100MBPS ethernet cards don't depend on the CPU for their
> signal processing, although, we all know what ass-u-me means. ;-)

Not directly, but there's plenty of time spent digesting TCP/IP packets. In
fact, from what I've heard, the TCP/IP stacks are relatively complex in that
some "starightforward" implementation would be dog slow and bring the CPU to
its knees, so they have "fast path" code (for when all the packet come in the
correct order, there are no errors, etc.) as well as "special needs" code (dog
slow, but shouldn't be called that often). Apparently this is sophisticated
enough that people write journal papers about it!

There are such things as hardware level TCP/IP routers out there, but the $25
wireless routers one finds at Fry's don't fall into that category. :-) Still,
it's absolutely astonishing that for $25 you get a fully functional, 54mbps
2.4GHz radio, a router, firewall, etc., all in a little box no bigger than a
hardback book. I remember looking at Telebit (are they still alive?)
netblazers back about a decade ago, and you got less functionality in a box
that at the time sold for >$1500!

---Joel


.

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