This article comprises the About document for the fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet PCI card originally made available for the Power Macintosh G3.

About Your Apple Gigabit Ethernet PCI Card

Your computer has a Gigabit Ethernet PCI Card installed. With this peripheral component interconnect (PCI) card, you can connect your computer to a 1000Base-SX Ethernet fiber optic network and transfer information at up to one gigabit per second, ten times faster than data transfer rates for 100Base-TX networks.

Your card works with Ethernet equipment that supports standard Ethernet maximum and minimum frame size, frame format, and protocols. For a list of the supported standards and protocols, see Standards and Protocols Supported at the end of this document.

Connecting to Your Ethernet Network

Use a 62.5 micron Multi-Mode fiber (MMF) or 50 micron MMF fiber optic cable with 850 nanometer (nm) SC connectors to connect your card to a fiber optic network.

Note : The cable length from your Ethernet port to a network hub should not exceed 260 meters for 62.5 Micron Multi-Mode fiber (MMF), or 550 meters for 50 Micron MMF fiber. Check with your network administrator if you have a questions about the cable length.

To connect your Gigabit Ethernet PCI Card to your network, follow these steps:

1. Turn your computer off.

2. Insert the SC connector from your cable into your card's SC connector ports.

3. Insert the other end of your cable into a connector or hub connected to your network.

Installing the Gigabit Ethernet PCI Card Software

If your computer uses Mac OS X Server, the required Ethernet software is already installed on your computer. No further installation is necessary.

If your computer uses Mac OS, you must install two system extensions in your System Extensions folder. These extensions are on the Gigabit Ethernet CD.

To install the Gigabit Ethernet PCI Card software:

1. Turn on your computer.

2. Insert the Gigabit Ethernet CD in your CD ROM drive.

3. Double-click the CD icon to open it.

4. Locate the extensions, Apple Gigabit Enet I and Apple Gigabit Enet II, and drag them onto your closed System Folder.

A message asks if you want to install these files into the Extensions folder.

5. Click OK.

6. After installing the software, restart your computer.

Configuring Your Computer

After you start up the computer, you may need to further configure your computer for a network connection. Your network administrator can provide the necessary information. You can also find help for configuring your network software in the manual and onscreen help that came with your computer.

Technical Specifications

Features

• 1000Base-SX card compliant with IEEE 802.3z
• One gigabit per second data transfer rate, 850 nm (full duplex)
• Single 1000Base-SX (GBE) port
• Full-duplex gigabit Ethernet interface
• Dual DMA channels
• Supports full flow control
• 33/66 MHz, 32 or 64-bit bus master
• PCI local bus rev. 2.1 compliant
• Duplex SC fiber connector
• SC connector characteristics: operating range at 62.5 micron MMF up to 260 meters, at 50 Micron MMF up to 550 meters
• 10 watts maximum power consumption
• 3.5 V and 5 V voltage

• Logical Link Control (IEEE 802.2)
• SNMP (limited MIB)
• Ethernet (IEEE 802.3z)
• Media Access Control (IEEE 802.3u)
• Flow Control (IEEE 802.3x)