Re:Let's Code a TCP/IP Stack: TCP Retransmission
by Galanwe on Thursday July 06, 2017 @02:56AM
(#14708627)
I worked multiple years in writing drivers or low level libraries for companies building network cards (mainly in finance). I also do a lot of networking/electronics at home, including building simple network cards.
To answer your question "'m not sure how widely used they are anymore": I would say it's almost impossible nowadays to find an ethernet-only chip that does not have any kind of tcp offload ("toe" for short). 90% of the times the chip also handles ARP & ICMP for you.
Most recent drivers are able to offload most of the work to the ship, and fallback on software for complementary features (most on-chip TOEs are still barebone) or when no TOE is present.
Re:Let's Code a TCP/IP Stack: TCP Retransmission
by rjsw on Wednesday July 05, 2017 @04:51PM
(#14705997)
All Intel NICs do TCP offload, they are quite widely used.
Re:Let's Code a TCP/IP Stack: TCP Retransmission
by CyberDildonics on Wednesday July 05, 2017 @05:50PM
(#14706399)
Do you have a source for more information? I know Intel NICs are mostly regarded pretty highly.
Re:Let's Code a TCP/IP Stack: TCP Retransmission
by aarongolliver on Wednesday July 05, 2017 @06:29PM
(#14706645)
I don't know much about it, but it's briefly described here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-... (ctrl-f offload)
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/networking/toe suggests it's done mostly in closed-source firmware.
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP_offload_engine