Validated almost 20 years ago, the 10 GbE network standard is still struggling to establish itself, but things are moving.
While many users rely on Wi-Fi to connect to their homes, there are still plenty of fans of the good old wired network, which is often more stable and potentially faster. "Potentially" only, because it has to be admitted that Ethernet is often stuck on a sad 1 GbE that modern Wi-Fi controllers far exceed. That said, over the past few years, Ethernet has been evolving in the right direction, and rather rapidly. More and more controllers on our motherboards are now 2.5 GbE or even 5 GbE, but 10 GbE has yet to make its mark, even though the standard has been validated for a long time.
Realtek RTL8127 specifications © Tom's Hardware
The reason for this lack of interest in a standard that promises data rates ten times higher than 1 GbE is due to a number of factors. First and foremost, of course, the Internet connection was a major bottleneck, but the fiber revolution has improved things quite a bit, and today many homes are connected with an Internet speed well above that of 1 GbE Ethernet. Another obstacle is the importance of having an internal infrastructure capable of handling 5 GbE or even 10 GbE: this means having a compatible switch, but also sufficiently modern cabling and, finally, a 10 GbE controller in the machine(s) you want to run at such a speed.
This last hurdle may soon be a thing of the past, as Realtek prepares to enter the fray. At Computex, the company presented a controller that is far less expensive than those of its main competitors, starting with the famous Aquantia (AQC107 and AQC113). Of course, we'll have to wait to see it in the stores before we're completely convinced, but Realtek claims that the RTL8127 could cost as little as $10, compared with more than 7 times as much for the competition. To make matters worse, the RTL8127 remains very compact - it adopts a small 9 x 9 millimetre PCB - and is energy-efficient, with Realtek talking about an average of 1.95 watts. A first step towards "all-10 GbE" at home?
