Introduction; About The Netgear 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Cardbus Adapter Ga511; Cardbus Support - NETGEAR GA511 User Manual

Chapter 1

Introduction

This chapter introduces the features, package contents, and appearance of the NETGEAR 10/100/
1000 Mbps Gigabit CardBus Adapter GA511.
About the NETGEAR 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit CardBus
Adapter GA511
Congratulations on your purchase of the NETGEAR® GA511 Gigabit CardBus Adapter. The
GA511 connects your CardBus notebook to a Gigabit Ethernet network, incorporating a new
technology that transfers data at a rate of 1 Gbps or 1000 megabits per second (Mbps) over
standard Category 5 cables. Performance is optimized and network overhead on the host system is
minimized with the use of the GA511 Gigabit CardBus Adapter. This guide describes the
installation and use of the GA511 for operation with a Microsoft® Windows® Vista, Windows®
XP, Windows® 2000, Windows® Me, or Windows® 98SE 2nd edition system.
The GA511 has demonstrated interoperability with all major Gigabit Ethernet equipment on the
market that is compliant with IEEE 802.3ab standards and should work with most non-compliant
Gigabit Ethernet products. In addition, because the GA511 uses standard Ethernet frame and
Media Access Control (MAC) formats, it provides full compatibility with Fast Ethernet network
equipment through network switches from a variety of vendors, including NETGEAR®.
The NETGEAR 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit CardBus Adapter GA511 is a 32-bit, high-
performance adapter that allows any CardBus-equipped computer to connect to an Ethernet or Fast
Ethernet network. The Model GA511 supports hot-swapping, allowing you to insert and remove it
as necessary, without having to turn off or reset your PC.

CardBus Support

CardBus is a 32-bit bus-mastering architecture that operates at PCI local-bus speeds of up to 33
MHz, yielding a peak bandwidth of 132 MB/sec. Unlike 16-bit PC Cards, which operate at slower
ISA bus speeds of 8 MHz using an ISA-like asynchronous protocol, CardBus provides a fast 32-bit
multiplexed address/data path that allows full access to gigabit Ethernet's bandwidth.
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v2.0, March 2007