Items tagged with Bigfoot
PC gamers and longtime HotHardware readers will no doubt be familiar with the Killer series of network controllers. We’ve taken a look at a number of the add-in versions over the years, including the original beast with the massive “K” heatsink. Many of today’s gamer-targeted motherboards also feature Killer networking technology, like this Gigabyte motherboard we recently looked at, for example.Though at their core Killer NICs are network controllers, that function just like more basic, mainstream solutions, they offer additional features designed to enhance performance and potentially improve the gaming experience. How the Killer NICs work their magic isn’t quite clear to gamers, however, so...
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Bigfoot's loose...again! Not that Bigfoot, but Bigfoot Networks. Every year right around this time, the company comes out with something new and fresh, and it's no different this time around. The company's latest is Advanced Stream Detect, which is now available for those who purchased the Killer 2100 and E2100. In fact, the ASD technology is now available for all of its networking platforms including Killer E2100 embedded networking platforms, Killer 2100 add-in cards and the Killer Wireless-N family of wireless networking adapters. Advanced Stream Detect now classifies all network traffic automatically and prioritizes streams which are particularly sensitive to network performance, such as...
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It's all about the cloud, these days. Cloud gaming, cloud sharing, cloud music. You get the point. And cloud gaming in particularly is seeing a serious surge. OnLive, Impulse, GameStop and Spawn Labs have all been making waves lately, and now there's yet another company jockeying for position. Gaikai has just teamed up with Bigfoot Networks in order to "crush latency in the cloud," and if you're a cloud gamer, that's probably a phrase you've fallen for. The companies are joining forces to "take cloud gaming to new levels of speed and responsiveness," with Gaikai's cloud gaing service to be the one that benefits the most. Gaikai addresses the latency problem by routing game data through a vast,...
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Well, this is sneaky. MSI has just revealed that they will be hosting a press event at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, and the funny thing is they aren't telling what will be there. But they are telling who will be sharing the stage with them: Bigfoot Networks. That's the company responsible for creating the Killer NIC card, a dedicated gaming NIC that has been well received in the gaming arena. It has shown to reduce ping times and lag, and generally smooth out online gameplay. Killer has already integrated their NIC technology onto a GPU, but the obvious next step is to integrate it into mainboards. MSI is a respected motherboard manufacturer, and while we aren't specifically told that...
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Bigfoot Networks has made a name for themselves in a very unique and rare market. There are only a finite number of hardcore gamers willing to pay extra for something like a souped up NIC card, but obviously more than a few are handing over their cash in order to have their ping times lowered. Any true gamer knows that ping times are the difference between survival and death, and the Killer 2100 network card has seen some rather positive reviews explaining that it actually does have reduce network ups and downs in order to keep pings and gameplay smoother. But again, it's tough to convince gamers with NICs already in their system to go out and buy another NIC. But what about people who are looking...
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To date, Bigfoot Networks has remained mostly a niche company. Only hardcore gamers know about them, and even fewer are willing to pay north of $100 for a high-end NIC card. Bigfoot Networks has had a relatively simple product line over the years: a high-end network card here, and a revamped high-end network card there. You get the drift, we're sure. But now the company is trying to break out in a big way, with a new partnership shedding light on how the company may eventually find themselves involved in other areas. Just as the CPU/GPU were able to overlap in time, Bigfoot Networks is looking beyond the Killer line of network cards by teaming with TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer...
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Bigfoot Networks generated quite a bit of buzz back in 2006 when the company launched the original Killer NIC M1. As many of you probably remember, the original Killer NIC was / is a PCI-based device that featured an on-board network processor, or NPU, that was supposedly able to lower in-game ping times and free up CPU resources, which in turn could increase framerates. The Killer NIC performed these duties by bypassing the Windows networking stack through the use of custom software and offloading network related tasks from the host CPU. And generally speaking, the Killer NIC delivered on all fronts to some degree. The $250+ price tag of the original Killer NIC was tough to justify, however,...
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Bigfoot Networks generated quite a bit of buzz back in 2006 when the company launched the original Killer NIC M1. As many of you probably remember, the original Killer NIC was / is a PCI-based device that featured an on-board network processor, or NPU, that was supposedly able to lower in-game ping times and free up CPU resources, which in turn could increase framerates. The Killer NIC performed these duties by bypassing the Windows networking stack through the use of custom software and offloading network related tasks from the host CPU. And generally speaking, the Killer NIC delivered on all fronts to some degree.The $250+ price tag of the original Killer NIC was tough to justify, however,...
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BigFoot Networks, the makers of the Killer Network Interface Card, have launched a new, more affordable version of the product. The first Killer NIC, aka the M1, sells for roughly $250. It is equipped with a 400MHz network processing unit, a large "K" heatsink, 64MB of DDR RAM, and a USB 2.0 port for connecting an external flash or hard drive. The drive is used to store files or FNApps which can be executed on the Killer. Our complete review of the original Killer NIC can be found here if you'd like some more in-depth analysis. The new Killer K1 NIC is similar to the M1, with a few exceptions. Before we list the differences, let's take a look at the K1 in all...
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The gang over at PC Perspective have taken a look at Bigfoot Networks new Killer NIC ethernet card to see if it is worth the hefty $250 price of admission. Although the Killer NIC showcased some impression performance gains on an Intel 975X platform, the performance gains seen on an old nForce2 platform were the largest and easily most surprising. Now the real question is, would your $250 upgrade for an AthlonXP platform be best spent on the CPU, memory, GPU, or on a Killer NIC ethernet card? It is obvious that the Killer NIC is not for everyone, but the potential for the card is actually quite compelling. And unlike some other recent additions to the gaming add-in card market, you...
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Bigfoot announces First Linux-based FNApp for the Killer NIC; posts bounty for more To Drive FNApps Development Bigfoot Launches FNApp Bounty Program with more than $15,000 in Cash and Prizes for Linux Developers AUSTIN, Texas - Nov. 21, 2006 - Bigfoot Networks, Inc., a research and development company announced the first Flexible Network Architecture (FNA.TM) application for the KillerTM Network Interface Card (NIC) to help make online gaming safer and more secure. The new FNApp, called the FNA Firewall, is an embedded Linux-based firewall client application that runs inside the Killer NIC, enabling gamers to turn off their CPU burdening firewall and continue gaming with security and optimal...
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Hello Everyone. We've just posted a review of Bigfoot Networks' Killer NIC here at HotHardware.com. We explore framerate performance and ping times and discuss the underlying hardware and technology employed on the Killer. Here's a snip from the piece: "By now, we're all familiar with Creative Labs' Audigy and X-Fi audio processors. A startup known as AISeek is working on an Artificial Intelligence accelerator for the PC. Ageia's PhysX processor is already on store shelves, and the product we'll be looking at today, the Killer NIC, is designed to offload some network functions from the CPU. Bigfoot Networks' Killer NIC is more than...
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There has been a lot of talk within the industry of consolidation as of late. AMD's acquisition of ATI has been a hot topic ever since it was announced. And that acquisition has spurred rumors of an unlikely merger between Intel and NVIDIA. Both AMD and Intel have talked about integrating a GPU on to the CPU in one form or another, Seagate bought Maxtor, Asus and Gigabyte entered into a strategic partnership, and the list goes on and on. Despite all the talk about consolidation, however, there are still quite a few companies that are pushing for more dedicated co-processing processing elements in the PC architecture. By now, we're all familiar with Creative Lab's Audigy and X-Fi audio...
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The gang at IGN have been chatting with the folks at Bigfoot Networks regarding the company's new $279 Killer gaming NIC. In essence, this new NIC offloads all the networking tasks from the CPU and OS and handles it onboard with its own 400MHz NPU (Network Processing Unit) and 64MB of RAM. As one might suspect from the hefty price tag, there are a multitude of features and functionality which are tailored around online gaming. Unfortunately, all performance benchmarks and claims thus far are coming straight from Bigfoot Networks. Should the results we witness when we test the hardware be even close to what these preliminary benchmarks indicate, we will have...
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