rupp@cod.NOSC.MIL (William L. Rupp) (02/23/89)
----- I am told that Ethernet data transfer is several times faster on a PC than on a Mac II (not a Mac IIx). Is this true, and if so, how can it be explained? Does it have something to do with the intricacies of the Mac operating system? Poor performance by the Mac Ethernet card (don't know the manufacturer))? Or ??? Please send any comments to me at rupp@nosc.mil. Thanks, Bill
timk@zaphod.ncsa.uiuc.edu (02/28/89)
Macintosh Ethernet boards have the same throughput, and largely the same design as PC Ethernet boards. Mac disks are commonly faster than PC disks giving larger USEFUL throughput. The ultimate limitation will be the 10MHz NUBUS that the board has to use to deliver the data to main memory. Some PCs, but only some of the newer '386 ones, can really deliver better bus speed. Your data transfer figures are probably from someone using TOPS or another disk sharing system. The Mac does have some extra overhead in processing that the simpler PC systems don't have - so they appear slower sometimes. I won't vouch for any software system except NCSA Telnet where they are the same speed (as far as the comparison can be made). Tim Krauskopf NCSA timk@ncsa.uiuc.edu