[PLUG] 10GBe NICs compatible with arm64 linux?

[Mike Cherba]

I've spent a fair amount of time with 10g, 40g and 100g on ThunderX and
OcteonTX/OcteonTx2 ARM64 processors.  Unfortunately this answer will depend
a bit on which ARM64 CPU you're running and the box etc.  The base intel
cards SHOULD be well supported, but in general this stuff is mostly still
not fully upstreamed, but tends to be supported in the trees from the CPU
vendor.

On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 1:10 PM Alexander Bedard <alex at dastyle.net> wrote:

> I have a host with a PCIe x8 slot. It runs a stock install of Debian's
> arm64 port, so it looks like any generic driver available in arm64
> should work on this platform.
>
> I know some of the higher Intel X series depend specifically on having
> an Intel processor of a certain gen or higher. I don't need newer
> features from the 7xx series like RDMA or built-in iSCSI/FC support etc.
> Just plain ethernet.
>
> I've seen some references to patches for arm64 for certain NIC's, but
> they usually only refer to the chipset, and the chipsets aren't usually
> advertised for many cards. I was hoping to find someone who's bought a
> specific card and can confirm it works and hopefully avoid making a
> 2-300$ mistake.
>
> I found a handful of chipsets in the kernel's make menuconfig, but when
> searching for those chipsets, they seem to turn up mainly for 4-5+ year
> old cards, and the brand/model names aren't the same anymore, so chances
> are newer revisions might not have the same chipset.
>
> Alex
>
> On 6/16/2021 11:19 AM, Ronald Bynoe wrote:
> > Do you have a host in mind that has PCIe? Or are you asking about
> on-board
> > LOM style 10G?
> >
> > I have a lot of experience with Intel 10G, but not on ARM. I know X520
> > should work on ARM, but I've never personally validated that. But I've
> seen
> > patches and bugs filed/fixes for it.
> >
> > I have a Pi and an nVidia Jetson Nano and have thought about buying an
> AGX,
> > but just for personal fun.
> >
> > Not sure if that helps, but if you have a platform in mind I can
> definitely
> > find out.
> >
> > Pleasantly,
> > Ronald Bynoe
> >
> > On Wed, Jun 16, 2021, 11:13 John Jason Jordan <johnxj at gmx.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, 16 Jun 2021 10:15:16 -0700
> >> Alexander Bedard <alex at dastyle.net> dijo:
> >>
> >>> I was wondering if anyone has personal experience with 10GBe network
> >>> cards that are compatible with Linux on arm64?
> >>> I wasn't able to find a specific list when searching online, and the
> >>> few results I found were anecdotal at best...
> >> I have interest in this as well, but so far no experience. The only
> >> devices I looked into were Thunderbolt 3 connectors that supposedly
> >> connect at 10GB via my computer's TB3 port.
> >>
> >> I didn't buy any because I don't know if it would actually make an
> >> improvement. My ethernet is all cat6 and gigabit compliant, but I'm the
> >> one who did the house wiring, and I'm nowhere close to a professional.
> >> And for the internet I have gigabit fiber from Centurylink, but I
> >> actually get about 75% of what they promise me.
> >>
> >> What's the point of a 10GB connection from my computer if it runs
> >> straight into a 1GB bottleneck?
> >>
>


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