Introduction; Gigabit Ethernet Technology; Fast Ethernet Technology - Atlantis A02-SGE Guide De Démarrage Rapide

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 (or PCI Express). The 32-bit PCI (PCI Express)
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 dominating potential
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