IBM EtherLink XL manual Full scatter gather, Infinite bursting, Network interface card NIC

2GLOSSARY

full scatter gather

Technique that reduces CPU utilization by coordinating multiple storage locations for received data with no CPU utilization and then collecting it from multiple memory locations for transmission.

infinite bursting

Technology that enables the 3C905B-TX adapter to move data continuously across the PCI bus without breaks in the data transfer previously caused by cache size limitations.

Previously, cache limitations caused the adapter to release and reacquire the PCI bus after every 64-byte burst. Infinite bursting increases throughput and reduces CPU utilization for better performance.

NDIS

Network Driver Interface Specification. Defines the network driver architecture and interfaces that let a PC support adapters. This architecture provides a standardized way to write drivers for network adapters.

network interface card (NIC)

Network interface card. Also called adapter.

PACE technology

Technology that enhances both real-time, interactive applications and multimedia (data, voice, and video) applications by enhancing network bandwidth utilization, reducing latency, controlling jitter, and supporting multiple traffic priority levels.

Parallel Tasking II architecture

3Com’s third-generation Ethernet adapter architecture. Parallel Tasking technology accelerates data transfer by processing data packets simultaneously instead of sequentially.

PCI

Peripheral Component Interconnect. An advanced high-performance local bus that supports multiple peripheral devices. At 33 MHz, the PCI bus transfers data at up to 1056 Mbps.