Do we need Jumbo Frames?

[Juan Salvo]

10gig Ethernet through thunderbolt HBAs. I think with FCoE (fibre channel over ethernet) catching on as well, this will be a replacement for both gigabit ethernet NAS sharing and fibre channel based SAN systems.

Hopefully when the chipset costs drop we’ll see 10gigE adopted right into iMacs and the like.

online editor | colorist | VFX | BD author

https://JuanSalvo.com

[Morten]

We use the Small Tree six port gigabit ethernet card to supply storage access to our MacPro workstations. Jumbo frames are enabled, which works fine with Full HD compressed codecs.

I guess a six port card will not be an option on thunderbolt HBAs? So what about on the Mac server side, if there is no MacPro (server) replacement? And with the internal card in iMacs – isn’t it true that we have no Jumbo frames? But do we need these Jumbo Frames at all???

– No Parking Production –

2 x Finalcut Studio3, 2 x Prod. bundle CS5.5, 2 x MacPro, 2 x ioHD, Ethernet File Server w. X-Raid…. and FCPX on trial

[Steve Modica]

The new iMacs support jumbo frames. There was only one generation that didn’t.
From the exchanged emails, I think the apple guys thought that segmentation offload was equivalent to jumbos. The idea is the OS hands the card large chunks and the card handles chopping them up and putting headers on them. To the OS, this delivers similar benefits.
The problem is that there’s nothing like this on the receive side. So your poor imac must deal with tons of 1500 byte frames to play your video.
10Gb does have offloads like this (Receive Side Coalescing). We fully support this. So moving into 10Gb, jumbo frames may not matter so much (the irony being that 10Gb cards support jumbo frames anyhow).

Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications

[Steve Modica]

We tried to quantify the need for jumbo frames. We did a lot of testing and found that imacs without jumbos were more susceptible to drops and such. For example, an imac would drop when hitting a PS file on the timeline or anytime there was a trasncode required (filters, mixed formats etc). It was more fragile than a mac pro with jumbo frames.
We haven’t gone back and worked on this more since FCPX came out and they added jumbos back to imacs.

Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications

[Bob Zelin]

Morten writes –
So what about on the Mac server side, if there is no MacPro (server) replacement?

https://www.magma.com/thunderbolt.asp

scroll down to see the Small Tree qualified list. I don’t know if Small Tree will work on the PEG6 with Magma, but you should think about upgrading your system to 10Gig – with or without a Mac Pro.

Bob Zelin

[Eric Hansen]

Hey Morten

I think you might be looking too far ahead. At this point I wouldn’t worry about a lack of a new Mac Pro for server use. These are extremely robust machines. I’m still running the original gen Mac Pros and some G5s on a daily basis. If you buy one today, it will outlast most of the other components in your chain.

Small Tree debuted Titanium at NAB, which is basically a 16 drive RAID with a Linux server built-in, with card slots for 1Gb E, 10Gb E and SAS expansion, taking away the need for a Mac Pro server.

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Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv