Seven common motherboard integrated network cards

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Seven common motherboard integrated network cards [Copy link]

　Today's motherboards not only integrate sound cards, but network cards have also become an indispensable part of the motherboard (there are special reasons why graphics cards are not generally integrated - people's requirements for the performance of sound cards and network cards are far lower than those for graphics cards).

　　The practice of integrating network cards into motherboards has been seen since the i810 era. Especially with the popularity of ADSL and various broadband access methods, the demand for network cards has also increased. Therefore, the solution of integrating network cards into motherboards has gradually been widely adopted by various manufacturers. Not only that, nowadays, there are many kinds of network cards integrated into motherboards, including new technologies such as Gigabit network cards and DUAL (dual network card) network cards.

　　The application of the network is so important that when we choose a motherboard, we might as well pay attention to the network card integrated on the motherboard to see which motherboard integrated network card is more suitable for you.

　　Types of integrated network cards

　　At present, the network cards integrated into the motherboard include 10M/100M, DUAL network cards, Gigabit network cards and wireless network cards. For large data networks, servers should use Gigabit Ethernet network cards, which are mostly used for connections between servers and switches to improve the response rate of the overall system. The 10M/100M network card uses the most commonly used and cheapest network chip, which is sufficient for common file sharing applications, and the cost of integrated network chips is now almost the lowest, with a very good cost performance. The DUAL dual network card technology is undoubtedly the most practical technology for users who use broadband applications, and the price is not high.

　　1. Realtek8201BL

　　Realtek 8201BL is a most common motherboard integrated network chip (also known as PHY network chip, which means that the computing part of the network control chip is handed over to the processor or south bridge chip to simplify the circuit design and reduce costs), with a speed of 10/100M adaptive. The performance of the network card using the Realtek 8201BL network chip should be similar to the popular 8139D network card on the market.


Figure 1, Realtek8201BL

　　2. VIA

　　VIA's integrated network card chip VT6105 is also widely used on VIA chip motherboards. Like 8201BL, VT6105 is also 10/100M adaptive.

　　VT6105 is divided into VT6105M and VT6105LOM. The difference between the two is that the latter supports the network remote wake-up function, while the former does not. Because of the widespread popularity of VIA motherboard chips, VT6105 may be the most popular integrated network card at present.


Figure 2, VIA integrated network card chip VT6105
3. SiS900

　　SiS has been very active in developing motherboard chipsets in recent years. It always puts more functions and standards into the south bridge chip to save motherboard manufacturers costs. Network function is one of them. SiS900 was originally a single network control chip, but now it has been integrated into the south bridge chip 963.


Figure 3, SiS900

　　4. nForce MCP nVIDIA/3Com

　　nForce2 is not only an APU (Audio processor unit) with good performance, but also has two built-in network chip functions: Realtek 8180PHY network chip (Figure 4) and Broabcom AC101L PHY network chip. These two network chips can well perform the functions of network cards and are very cost-effective products.


Figure 4, nForce MCP nVIDIA/3Com
　　

　　nForce MCP nVIDIA/3Com is the only dual-channel network architecture (DualNet) that can support both LAN and WAN connections, that is, it has two built-in 3Com and nVIDIA 10/100Mbps BaseT Ethernet/Fast Ethernet interfaces that can work in parallel.
　5. lntel Pro/100VE

　　lntel's entry-level network chip (Figure 5), but compared with other 10/100M network cards, its performance is slightly better. Intel's network card is a product with quite good performance among entry-level network cards. In the early years, because the price of network cards using other chips was very high, lntel decided to develop its own network card chips.


Figure 5, Intel Pro/100VE

　　6. BCM5702WKFB

　　BROADCOM's Gigabit BCM5702WKFB (Figure 6) chip is an integrated Gigabit network chip used in many motherboards. It uses a 0.13 micron process and a 15×15mm package. Compared with the previous generation of products, the BCM5702WKFB chip significantly reduces the device cost, circuit board space and power consumption required for Gigabit Ethernet connections. Currently, only Intel, Alten, Broadcom, 3COM, and VIA are capable of producing Gigabit network card chips, among which BROADCOM's products have a considerable advantage in terms of price.


Figure 6, BCM5702WKFB

　　7. VIA VT6122

　　VIA VT6122 chip is a very famous chip product in the industry with a good price-performance ratio. Moreover, the Gigabit network speed is very attractive to many users who make a living from the Internet. It is very likely to become the most popular Gigabit integrated network card.

　　How is the performance of the integrated network card?

　　Unlike the AC'97 integrated soft sound card that has no audio processing capability, the integrated network card, like the PCI network card, has an independent processing chip, so the CPU resource usage rate is not high. In the era of CPU frequency calculation, its impact on the overall performance of the computer is almost negligible. Its performance is basically the same as that of the independent network card sold on the market for dozens of yuan.

　　For users who access the Internet through a network card or ordinary LAN users, the performance of the integrated network card is completely sufficient. However, if you look closely, the soft network card and the hard network card still have an impact on the overall performance of the machine. The soft-integrated network card transfers the computing part of the network control chip to the processor or south bridge chip to simplify the circuit design and thus reduce costs. Network cards integrated in Realtek8201B, VIA VT6105 and SiS900 are all soft network cards. Generally, network card functions integrated in the south bridge chip of the motherboard are all soft network cards.