NPU: Network Processing Unit

[Traak]

Atheros' NPU is now being integrated into Gigabyte motherboards.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...-e2100-chipset

Evidently, people who make their money providing motherboards regard the NPU to be a sufficiently important factor that, instead of just using a "few network tweaks", they've included an NPU on their motherboards, with 1 gigabyte of RAM of its own, dedicated to handling network traffic.

I know some may dismiss this as unnecessary marketing hype, but the same mentality was probably behind this statement:

"You will never need more than 640k of memory in a computer"
-Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft.

See, even Bill Gates can be wrong about computers. Same with people who say that having a dedicated network processor is unnecessary. Well, having a dedicated video card could also be classed as unnecessary too, along with a dedicated sound card. And more RAM. And a gaming mouse. And a monitor that is over 12".

[Goku]

Total overkill. Maybe we'll need it ages from now. More marketing then anything else.

[Rbstr]

Seriously, there's a ton of shit people by because some marketing guy has spun it as beneficial, when in reality it's below the level of perception.
This is a perfect example of one of those things.

Network traffic just isn't that hard to process. The rest of the computer is full of links with bandwidth an order of magnitude greater than an internet connection is capable of.

Well, having a dedicated video card could also be classed as unnecessary too, along with a dedicated sound card.

Sound cards are unnecessary from a performance standpoint but even those provide noticeable benefit to some. I'd never recommend someone buy a sound card unless they have the speakers, music collection and ears for it to matter. That's very few people.
And lets not forget integrated graphics, especially the newer stuff, can run 1080p video and more.

I know you want to add and extra 1 FPS even if you're blazing along at a million frames per second. But it's really insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

[Traak]

It isn't when you are at the highest frames per second that you need the network to have zero lag.

It's when you are at your lowest fps, which is often in the situations with the highest network utilization, that you need your network connection to have as close to zero lag as possible.

It would be interesting for Sony to test PS2 using whatever algorithm they would have to invent to make it a realistic reflection of all the players playing at once in a crowded base, and see how an NPU would benefit the game, because as far as I know, no game I know of is more network intensive and dependent than Planetside, because no game has anywhere near as many players executing near as many events that has to be reacted to appropriately by the player involved than Planetside. No game even comes anywhere close.

I think that the true test of the utility of the NPU is in Planetside, then PS2, because it is the acid test of network load handling vs: fps that stands above all other games.

Claiming an NPU would not do any real good because they have tested it in other games is not necessarily valid. Planetside is unique in how much network bandwidth and low latency it requires to play, so to claim that an NPU is not needed because it only makes a one percent difference in games with 32 players or so is not necessarily valid. It's comparing apples to apple seeds. Same thing, just on a much smaller scale.

No game that I know of has as many different types of events going on. Each empire has different weapons, each with its own trajectory, rate of fire, range, and projectile speed. This all requires network bandwidth to process, again, far in excess of any other game. The true benefits of an NPU when combined with Planetside have not yet been quantified.

Further, it might not make much difference most of the time, but make the most difference, lag-wise, right at the very moment when you would have otherwise had a momentary zero fps (or slideshow, as I call it) experience. I contend that by using it and any other means at your disposal to raise your MINIMUM framerate, even if that minimum ONLY happens when you are face-to-face with six enemies shooting plasma balls at you, you decrease your likelihood of experiencing low-fps moments that result in your unnecessary death.

Why use a video card that only piles more framerates on the top end, but can't solve the problems that are causing a low minimum framerate, because those problems are not a result of video subsystem deficiencies? After a certain level, as you said, a million frames per second, so to speak, it becomes unnecessary.

However, the more completely dominating your video subsystem's capabilities are, the more other bottlenecks become apparent, such as CPU/RAM/chipset/motherboard, plus network latency and sound processing. You may only get another ten frames per second on the maximum framerates by spending 70 more dollars on a video card, but that same money spent on an NPU might give you a few more frames per second at the bottom of your framerate spectrum, say, giving you 28 frames per second instead of 20 in a combatant-clogged courtyard or lobby.

And those few extra frames per second, in those situations when network utilization is maximized far more than is the video utilization, are where I think the NPU and sound cards can really pay off.

We don't need more frames per second at the top of the range, especially with the new LCD monitors, that max out at 120Hz refresh rate. What we need are more frames per second at the bottom of the range, because the bottom of the frames-per-second spectrum is where your death is most likely to occur unnecessarily because of that lag.

[Goku]

Traak your feeding too much into the marketing.

[Traak]

I don't know how you would come up with that statement. It is a rational analysis of what I think and where I think the potential benefits of an NPU and sound card would be.

Though lag may be seen on the screen, it is not necessarily caused by a lack of video subsystem power. That leaves other factors, the leading one of which will be the computational power of the computer itself, including CPU, RAM, and chipset.

After that is the NPU, sound processor, and peripherals.

I wonder if you could set your game to "receive no sound data" and just play silent, what the framerates would be like. I don't mean "mute the volume." I mean "ignore all sound data."

[Goku]

Killer tried making their way into the market years ago and they failed. If this product was so good Oort would of taken off by now is all I'm saying. Maybe there is a future to it but not anytime soon. I don't know of any legit hardware site that recommends these.

[Rbstr]

You're trying to solve a problem that just doesn't exist, Traak.

The performance bonus you get by spending $100 on an NPU(or even sound card) is certainly far less than dumping an extra $100 into a video card or CPU.
And the CPU and graphics card are going to have applicability to more situations.

We're talking bandwidth on the order of some kilobytes a second gaming on the interne - it's nothing compared to a normal download or torrent - it's sent by the same protocols.

Go do an experiment. Find a torrent and download it, and measure *FPS* in something single player. Then do it w/o the torrent going.

[Traak]

Planetside uses far more network bandwidth than other first-person shooter games.

In order to prove that a separate NPU offers absolutely no advantage whatsoever, one would have to have a benchmark, or, at least, some experience playing the game with a dedicated NPU, and a regular motherboard NPU.

From Overclockers Club:

After running the Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 through the ringer, I have a fond respect for what it does. The claim is that it offers lower pings and higher FPS in games using UDP packet styles, which are the vast majority of online games out there that connect to the Internet for play. UDP is a connection-less protocol that spams packets onto the wire without first establishing a session or using a delivery confirmation method like TCP does. With the nature of UDP, if a packet gets lost it is not retransmitted, which if enough packets are dropped, then you start to notice a real interruption in your games. The Killer 2100 is designed to give your UDP packets first priority to the wire to help lessen the probability of dropped game packets. After seeing the tests, the combination of the hardware and the Killer Network Manager provided UDP transfers that were faster than both the onboard and Netgear discrete NICs.

The Killer Network Manager is one of the key components that make the Killer 2100 as good as it is. The software allows you to control the priority of packets from applications using your system's network resources, as well as the ability to control how much bandwidth each one is allowed to use. As an example, when I was running the tests with the Bittorrent application, I was able to throttle down the upload and download speeds to a maximum of 1Mbps, keeping it from using a lot of my bandwidth. This gave my game the ability to squeeze a few more packets onto the wire faster, which could mean the difference between my bullet killing my opponent or his killing me first.

While this card will not double your network speed, if you are hardcore into gaming and every second counts, then you will benefit from the abilities of the Killer 2100. If you are a casual gamer, then the onboard NIC will suit you just fine. The Killer 2100 is designed for gamers that put everything into their systems to get the most out of it. Think of it like you would your GPU — while some integrated graphics are fine for casual gamers, those who demand the best add better, discrete cards. Your network card is no different — if you are wanting every edge you can, then this is the card for you. I have seen it as low as $77 on some sites, which is a steal for the Killer 2100.

Anandtech tests the laptop versoin

That brings us to the star of today’s review, the Killer Wireless-N 1102. Throughput is generally equal to or better than equivalent solutions, and it can even outperform Intel’s top Ultimate-N 6300 is many tests, despite having one less spatial stream available. That’s not the real selling point, though; it’s the software, drivers, and optimizations to improve latency that allows the 1102 stand out. If the latency only helped in gaming, that might be enough, but the small file copy times show that it’s useful for non-gamers as well. I routinely copy large amounts of files and data between PCs, and in the past I’ve always felt the need to do that over a wired connection. I’m still inclined to go that route if I’m moving more than a couple gigabytes, because even the best wireless networks still fall short of Gigabit Ethernet. However, copying lots of smaller files ends up being faster than 100Mb Ethernet for a change, and if I’m not in a hurry 15-25MiB/s will get most transfers done fast enough to make hassling with wires unnecessary.

Something else that surprised me is the pricing; the Killer 1102 is roughly a $15 upgrade from Intel’s 6230, and if you’re looking at a gaming laptop, $15 is chump change. Given their earlier $200+ Killer NICs, I was afraid when Bigfoot first approached me that we’d see a repeat of such prices, but I’m happy to say that’s not the case. The Killer 1102 (and 1103) might cost a bit more than other wireless solutions, but if you care about wireless performance and latency, a $15 to $20 upgrade is reasonable.

This reminds me of analogy. If I go fishing, and catch a fish, I can state, with authority, that fishing works.

However, if you go fishing and don't catch a fish, you can't use that to refute the fact that fishing works, because I have proven it worked because I caught a fish.

Just because some reviews of the NPU claim it didn't improve things doesn't negate the fact that some reviews proved that it did improve things.

Now, if all the reviews showed that it did nothing, that would be differrent.

Further, since Planetside uses more network bandwidth than any other first-person shooter, it will benefit the most from any increase in networking speed, and no one has done a test using Planetside as the basis of the test.

Further still, since gaming in general and Planetside, specifically, use UDP connections, not TCP, there can be costs, as in kills you could have gotten, that are associated from not managing even one packet correctly, and this is hard to quantify.

If 70 dollars is a lot of money to you, then you have problems that are far larger than the benefits of an NPU in Planetside.

[Rbstr]

I claimed the money is better spend on something else, not that it isn't worth being spent.
Everything I've read about these cards makes them a terrible value compared to the other things you could use it for.

There is merit in the software and prioritizing udp but a dedicated processing unit and a gb of ram is unnecessary.
You'll not in the second review there that the cost was only 15 dollars as an upgrade. You can make the case for that. But in a tower when you have to buy the whole card it's inefficiency embodied.

This reminds me of analogy. If I go fishing, and catch a fish, I can state, with authority, that fishing works.
However, if you go fishing and don't catch a fish, you can't use that to refute the fact that fishing works, because I have proven it worked because I caught a fish.

This analogy is to simple for it's own good. The fish may or may not have been caught as a result of your methods. The fish may have, in fact, been caught in spite of your method.
But that's just science 101 - Without independent confirmation and an actual understanding of processes you don't really have anything. Or you believe in homeopathy.
Really, fishing is a perfect example of marketing driven marginal benefit equipment. A decades old rapalla catches fish just fine

[krnasaur]

TODAY, I think it will be useless... later down the road this may be the wave of the future.

[Traak]

How would the future change anything about this?

[Goku]

Originally Posted by Traak

How would the future change anything about this?

Kinda like how Bill Gates said 614KB or w/e it was would be enough for memory perhaps.

[SKYeXile]

Planetside uses more bandwidth than other first person shooters?.....what?

[Traak]

Photonics. It will be interesting too see them break through into this.

It will make present computers look pretty pale in comparison.

If the photonic processor is bulkier than an electronic one, which I would imagine would be the case for the first few generations, since it uses so little power, it could have its bulky self contained in the power brick for laptops, with its I/O handled by optical fibers. The laptop itself would be the display and interaction part, but the bullky photonic processor could be in a separate brick, the way power is done today.

The electrical power section of the brick would be much smaller, so the brick itself wouldn't be bigger than a normal brick, or at least not by much. For desktops, the extra bulk of a photonic processor would be easily absorbed in the case.