[e2e] Re: Are you interested in TOEs and related issues

[David Edmondson]

[ trimmed cc ]

* mchristi at yahoo-inc.com [20040305T075334]:
> >> 2) On low end (1-2 CPU) x86 based machines, cost of adding a
> >>    processor is much higher than adding a TOE (I personally
> >>    haven't verified this).
> >It's not obvious why this should necessarily be the case, given that
> >it is likely that there will continue to be quite a bit more
> >general-purpose CPUs made than TCP offload engines.
> 
> Well, current pricing, with a *huge* negotiated discount, when going
> from a 2-proc to 4-proc box is on the order of $20+ grand.

A four processor Dell PowerEdge 6650 starts at $13,991 on the Dell web
site.  That number can't be $20,000 more than the price of a two
processor machine.

Most of the conversation here has been about filling pipes at 10G.  It
seems that it will be much more challenging to empty pipes at 10G than
it will be to fill them.  Correspondingly, managing inbound data seems
like a more interesting topic for TOE application than managing
outbound.

dme.