2.5gbps networking

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
This popped up a few days ago. Apparently coming with some ASRock Z39o motherboards, which are the new, higher tier of motherboards coming out alongside existing 300-series mobos with impending 9th Gen CPUs, will sport 2.5gbps networking.

https://www.techspot.com/news/76788-realtek-may-finally-bring-25g-networking-masses.html
https://videocardz.com/newz/asrock-leaks-z390-phantom-gaming-9

Gigabit ethernet is plenty for most people and still basically fine for my uses, but it does bottleneck some file transfers between faster HDDs and SSDs on the home network.

2.5gbps seems like a bit of a stopgap, but it would be a more affordable way of lifting bottlenecks off HDDs in networks.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
This is a necessary step imho and very welcome. With SSD storage prices set to plummet according to analysts, and 5g networks ready to take off, this will be a good step forward.

I agree, perhaps more of a stop-gap, but any improvement is welcome.
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Assume this is really aimed as a cost saving measure over the already available 10Gb kit?

Edit: Whelp.. if I'd read the article first, I'd have had the answer. :)
 
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Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Yeah, it's vastly cheaper than the 10gbps stuff, and doesn't require new cabling in many cases. Or something like that, I read the articles but already can't really remember what they said ;)
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Being able to use existing Cat5e/Cat6 cabling is the big selling point for this I suspect. The cost of recabling with a higher standard cable to support 5Gbps or 10Gbps would make these speeds unattractive to most home users I suspect, so a 2.5Gbps offering on current cabling is very good news.

It seems that the 2500BASE-X standard for the 2.5Gbps LAN is attractive because it uses most of what's already in the 10GBASE-T standard for 10Gbps LANs, but with a simple clock divider to reduce the data rate to a level that Cat5e/Cat6 can support. This makes is cheaper not just for customers but for product developers - good news all round. This short technical presentation on 2.5G from the IEEE and Cisco provides some technical background - http://www.ieee802.org/3/NGEBASET/public/jan15/bains_ngeabt_01d_0115.pdf.
 
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