[OLPC-devel] Re: wireless networking, in the "real" world.

[Jim Gettys]

On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 01:32 +0000, Mike Hearn wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-03-14 at 20:10 -0500, Jim Gettys wrote:
> > There is another aspect I think people are missing: you are all
> > presuming 802.11g running at tens of megabits.
> 
> OK, actually I had assumed wireless was too fancy for most places and
> good old wires would be used. I don't think it's that CPU expensive for
> a good network card to shovel bits off the wire and into memory, but
> never checked exact figures.

Wires are expensive.  Go check the cost of a USB cable, or an ethernet
cable. Wireless is cheap.  Costs a few bucks, and no wires to
lose/forget.

> 
> I have no clue how much CPU time a wireless connection takes, I hardly
> ever use wireless. So yes, probably you're right.

It's not the CPU time actually driving the wireless at all; it is the
time the CPU is sitting around waiting for the bits to move, at low
speed...

-- 
Jim Gettys
One Laptop Per Child