Killer NIC

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The Bigfoot Networks KillerNIC M1, more commonly referred to as the Killer NIC is a network interface card produced by Bigfoot Networks. It is the first of its kind to be targeted specifically at gamers. Unlike the vast majority of consumer-oriented NICs, the Killer has a Power Architecture based NPU (Network Processing Unit), which runs an embedded version of Linux.^[1] The product advertises lower latency and more frames per second with "network offloading" technology. The price at the date of release was $280.^[2] It is now commonly available for $249 from many retailers.

Speculations have been made as to the actual benefit of the Killer NIC. While early tests reported that the difference in real performance between the Killer NIC and normal on board NICs was minimal; more recent reviews have shown dynamic improvement with games. Bigfoot Networks has been releasing new driver sets every 2 to 3 weeks which have shown dramatic improvements in performance and compatibility. There is large reports of hindering connection speeds, graphical corruption and even full operating system failure.^{[citation needed]}

The Killer NIC has now won many industry awards and is now being included in a new category of "online gaming PC's".

While often compared to technologies such as nVidia's FirstPacket with the onboard Media Communications Processor, those solutions boost TCP rather than UDP and are not nearly as effective for online gaming.

The Linux architecture allows for a complete bypass of the windows networking stack, priority UDP delivery and the onboard memory allows for applications to be run on a proprietary flexible network architecture or FNA.

FNA programs can be run completely on the NPU without taking away valuable CPU performance during gaming. The first FNA release was a firewall in December of 2006. The FNA torrent client was on display at the Consumer Eletronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 2007. Bigfoot Networks claims there are many new FNA products in development.

1 Card Features
2 Technical Features
3 Industry Awards
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Card Features

Ultimate Ping – Gaming Network Processor delivers data to games faster than standard NIC's.
MaxFPS – By lowering CPU utilization for networking everything in the system runs faster.
FNA – Flexible Network Architecture allows everyone to freely write, download, and run applications that execute on the Killers Network Processing Unit.
GameFirst – Network packets for games are prioritized above all other network activity on the system.
Ping Throttle – Allows users to dynamically turn up or down their ping without impacting CPU performance.

[edit] Technical Features

Data Rates: 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet controller
Integrated Memory: 64 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM
Integrated Processor: 400 MHz Freescale MPC8343E PowerQUICC II Pro System-on-a-chip processor.
IEEE Compliance: 802.3, 802.3u, 802.3x, 802.2z
Data Path Width: 32-bit PCI Rev 2.2
Data Transfer Mode: Bus-master DMA
Heat Sink: Nickel-plated aluminum
Future Proof: Field upgradable Firmware
Connectors: RJ-45
Port: USB 2.0 (FNA applications only)
Operating systems supported: Windows XP, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista (in development as of December 2006), Linux