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This user’s guide tells you how to install this device and how to connect it to your
Gigabit Ethernet network.
1.
Introduction
Thank you for choosing the 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet Card for 32-bit PCI
Bus-equipped personal computers. The 32-bit PCI 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit
Ethernet Card is ideal for speeding up data transfers for network servers and other
computers, such as those used for video-conferencing, that send and/or receive
large amounts of data. The 32-bit PCI 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet Card also
includes the newest networking technologies, such as multicasting support, that use
network bandwidth more efficiently and further help the card maximize data
throughput.
1.1
Gigabit Ethernet Technology
Gigabit Ethernet is an extension of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet utilizing the same packet
structure, format, and support for CSMA/CD protocol, full duplex, flow control, and
management objects, but with a tenfold increase in theoretical throughput over
100-Mbps Fast Ethernet and a hundredfold increase over 10-Mbps Ethernet. Since it
is compatible with all 10-Mbps and 100-Mbps Ethernet environments, Gigabit
Ethernet provides a straightforward upgrade without wasting a company’s existing
investment in hardware, software, and trained personnel.
The increased speed and extra bandwidth offered by Gigabit Ethernet is essential to
coping with the network bottlenecks that frequently develop as computers and their
busses get faster and more users use applications that generate more traffic.
Upgrading key components, such as your backbone and servers to Gigabit Ethernet
can greatly improve network response times as well as significantly speed up the
traffic between your subnets.
Gigabit Ethernet supports video conferencing, complex imaging, and similar data-
intensive applications. Likewise, since data transfers occur 10 times faster than Fast
Ethernet, servers outfitted with Gigabit Ethernet NIC’s are able to perform 10 times
the number of operations in the same amount of time.
1.2
Fast Ethernet Technology
The growing importance of LANs and the increasing complexity of desktop
computing applications are fueling the need for high performance networks. A
number of high-speed LAN technologies have been proposed to provide greater
bandwidth and improve client/server response times. Among them, 100BASE-T
(Fast Ethernet) provides a non-disruptive, smooth evolution from the current
10BASE-T technology. The non-disruptive and smooth evolution nature, and the
