PCMCIA net card transfer rate V. cardbus + me being annoyed.

Hi,

From <http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-HOWTO-4.html>:
} 16-bit PCMCIA cards have a maximum performance of 1.5-2 MB/sec. That
} means that any 16-bit 100baseT card (i.e., any card that uses the
} pcnet_cs, 3c574_cs, smc91c92_cs, or xirc2ps_cs driver) will never
} achieve full 100baseT throughput. Only CardBus network adapters can
} fully exploit 100baseT data rates.

Now, 10MBit/s = 1250KByte/s. So, what's the point of a 100baseT PCMCIA
card? The speed increase is tiny (well, 20%)

From <http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/N100672.asp>
} while a 16-bit PCMCIA card transfers data at approximately 20 Mbps

This implies 2.5MB/s.

My problem: using vsftp I only get 500K/s maximum (other programs - samba,
apache etc all give less). How can I increase this? I'm disappointed that
PCMCIA can't go above 20Mb/s or 1.5-2MB/s, I'd have bought a Cardbus card
if this had been made clearer. I expected a card labelled 100Mb/s to give
a maximum of 12.5MB/s, not 2.

From
<http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&pro duct_uid=23672>
} You'll instantly achieve 100 Mbps performance
Spec page:
} Data Transfer Rate 100 Mbps

Who should I complain to? (I want to complain, it goes little faster than
my old 10MB card so was a waste of £25 as far as I can see.)

Slightly related: does this output:
root@hex / # ls -lR /proc/bus/pccard/
/proc/bus/pccard:
total 0
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 00
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 01
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 drivers

/proc/bus/pccard/00:
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 cardbus
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 exca
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 info
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 pci

/proc/bus/pccard/01:
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 cardbus
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 exca
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 info
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:54 pci

Proove that I have Cardbus? I'm not sure from IBMs site, it isn't clear if
the ThinkPad 570 does.

Probably useless output:

root@hex pccard # cat /proc/bus/pccard/00/cardbus
00000000 00000006 30000559 00000000
00000020 00000000 00000000 00000000
root@hex pccard # cat /proc/bus/pccard/01/cardbus
00000000 00000006 30000559 00000000
00000020 00000000 00000000 00000000

root@hex pccard # cat /proc/bus/pccard/01/info
type: TI 1450
psock: 0
bus: 00
devfn: 02.1
cardbus: 06
root@hex pccard # cat /proc/bus/pccard/00/info
type: TI 1450
psock: 0
bus: 00
devfn: 02.0
cardbus: 03

Thanks for your time :-)

--
Matt
*get's ready to get angry with Netgear, even though I liked them before*


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On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 23:58:34 +0000, Matt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> From <http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-HOWTO-4.html>:
> } 16-bit PCMCIA cards have a maximum performance of 1.5-2 MB/sec. That
> } means that any 16-bit 100baseT card (i.e., any card that uses the
> } pcnet_cs, 3c574_cs, smc91c92_cs, or xirc2ps_cs driver) will never
> } achieve full 100baseT throughput. Only CardBus network adapters can
> } fully exploit 100baseT data rates.
>
> Now, 10MBit/s = 1250KByte/s. So, what's the point of a 100baseT PCMCIA
> card? The speed increase is tiny (well, 20%)
>
> From <http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/N100672.asp>
> } while a 16-bit PCMCIA card transfers data at approximately 20 Mbps
>
> This implies 2.5MB/s.

Minus overhead.

> My problem: using vsftp I only get 500K/s maximum (other programs - samba,
> apache etc all give less). How can I increase this? I'm disappointed that
> PCMCIA can't go above 20Mb/s or 1.5-2MB/s, I'd have bought a Cardbus card
> if this had been made clearer. I expected a card labelled 100Mb/s to give
> a maximum of 12.5MB/s, not 2.

If you are only getting 500 KB/s you appear to be on a 10baseT 'hub' (half
duplex), and a cardbus nic would not be any faster until you get a
'switch' instead. Note that for older PCs the limiting factor may be hard
drive speed. One old PC I had could only do 3 MB/s sustained write,
but could send from disk cache at over 7 MB/s.

One example of the shortcoming of 16-bit pc cards is that there were
several versions of Linksys PCMPC100. One version I had was very erratic
at 100baseT-FD even in Windows (worked OK for slower dsl or if limited to
10baseT). A newer version worked smoother, but seemed to be artificially
throttled to not exceed its capabilities.

--
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