[net-perf] another hardware suggestion

[Michael Sinatra]

Mike Iglesias wrote:
> Have you run FreeBSD on the SunFires?  For some of the Opteron based
> systems listed on the FreeBSD page it looks like FreeBSD is not
> stable on the Opteron.

Yep, FreeBSD (5.4-STABLE/amd64) is running great on the v20z, and
according to the web page, it's "Fully Functional" on that platform.

> We have some Appro 1u rackmount systems with Tyan S2881 motherboards.  I
> can get them to go around 950mb/s (sometimes a little better) if they
> are on the same VLAN on a router.  They have dual Opteron CPUs, 1gig of
> memory, and 2 Broadcom 10/100/1000 copper ports on the motherboard.
> I hope that's good enough for piPEs, because that's all we have right
> now...

I have run FreeBSD 5.x-STABLE/amd64 on a Tyan 2885 and 2895 mobo (both
with dual-Opterons) and it works fine.  Right now I also have Gentoo
running on the same mobos.  The Broadcoms should run great for
piPEs--the Tigon-3 chipset is very good.

michael