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networking > technologies > network interface card

Network Interface Card

The Network Interface Card (NIC) has evolved through three main variations for the domestic and small business computer. The ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) Bus card were the first type and the scratch memory locations and IRQ numbers needed to be defined carefully to avoid conflict with any other interface cards on the ISA Bus. Given this technology was the best available at the time of Windows 3.1 and many other protocols were being experimented with setting these cards up was often a nightmare. The PCI (Peripheral Connection Interface) are a more modern system and allow dynamic allocation of scratch memory and IRQ lines to automatically avoid conflict within the operating system configuration. ISA typically runs at 16 bits wide and operates at 8 MHz and the PCI system is typically running at a 32-bit wide data bus operating at 33 MHz. However these maximum speeds are rarely reached except over short bursts. However the PCI bus allows for further definitions of 64 bit wide busses and doubling of transfer speed to increase exchange rates as the CPU speeds increase.

For one NIC to communicate in a network with other network cards, each card must have a unique MAC (Media Access Channel) address allocated to it. Manufactures have been simplifying this by allocating worldwide unique MAC addresses to each Ethernet network card they produce. This is "burnt" into the card so it can't be reset accidentally or interfered with. The MAC address uniquely identifies each node in a network. This stability is at the root of many security features that scan data on the network for foreign MAC addresses and excludes them (and hopefully alerts the network managers of their presence!).

The TCP/IP has it own identification system for every machine However the IP number used by each TCP/IP stack working through a NIC must translate the IP number through the Data Control Layer to the MAC address with the accompanying data.

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. why network
. osi model
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. network types
. design
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