Ok, so in 5 years time you're building a new system...

[BlindSide]

Gotta have the video card, the trusty NVidia 12000 GTX (Or ATI 6500), oh yeah, can't forget the dedicated physics card, got one of those too. What about the network card? Can't skimp on that either! Gotta get a dedicated gaming network too.

The direction technology is going, it seems like people want you to buy 20 million pieces of hardware to play a video game. Back in the days of DOOM even buying an external pci video card seemed like a far fetched thing to do, even the graphics ran on the cpu.

So has anyone tried this dedicated "gaming network card"? Is there anyone that can convince me that it's not utter crap? It's kind of distressing how cool they make the pcb look, I wouldn't be surprised if a quite few WoW players grabbed these the minute they saw the advertisement.

I'll admit the reviews seem ok, so at the moment I'm undecided what to think of this product.

[BlindSide]

Hmm looking deeper into this, theres a nice description of the hardware over at toms:

The heart and brains of the Killer NIC is a standalone CPU, which Bigfoot naturally calls an NPU (short for network processing unit). In the M1 model, it’s a 400-MHz PowerPC processor that runs a standard Open Source version of Linux based on the 2.6 kernel. It also includes its own network controller that works with GbE (1000 Mbps), Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) and 10BaseT (10 Mbps) media, all through the same RJ-45 connector. To provide room for the OS to work and to accommodate ample buffer space for the TCP/IP stack, the card also includes 64 MB of hard-soldered PC-2100 DDR RAM (266 MHz). To avoid involving the CPU overmuch in data transfers to and from main system RAM, the Killer NIC also functions as a bus-master direct memory access (DMA) device, which means it can coordinate its own memory transfers directly, without requiring the CPU’s intervention or assistance.

It's almost like a whole pc on a pci card, fascinating.

[JP]

Sounds interesting... though i wonder how many people will actually bother with these and how supported they'll be. I assume it's basically like the old Physx card which requires a game to program in support? So you'll get the old problem of no games supporting it because no users own it because no games support it.

I wonder what dedicated card they'll think of making next?

[Virion]

Maybe... AI card?

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/06/stand ... it-viable/
http://www.ai-blog.net/archives/000153.html

[rogerborg]

What about the network card? Can't skimp on that either! Gotta get a dedicated gaming network too.

The reviews that I read all tested on Vista.

Verdict: Vista's network stack sucks like a Thai hooker saving up for a sex change op.

I'll wait for the $20 version, I think.

[JP]

Why didn't i think of an AI card?

Though to be fair it's basically like just having another processor really isn't it? so is an extra card necessary? Seeing as there's multicore PCs now what benefit does an extra card have?

[Virion]

now what benefit does an extra card have?

Showoff to your friends. "Woot I got an AI CARD!!"
Other than that I see no point getting one.

[jontan6]

what would be good api for AI card? LISP?