LINUX Professional 9.2 (a version of Linux based on the 2.6 kernel). It was immediately apparent that the 2.6-based SUSE product would deliver the highest throughput of the three.

Finally, the test would be performing FTP ?gets? and ?puts? so an FTP server had to be selected. Vsftpd is an FTP server that also supports the ?zero-copy? feature so it was chosen for the test.

The summary list of the server configuration is:
Tyan S4882 motherboard in a Tyan TX46 2U chassis
4 AMD Opteron 850 2.4 GHz CPU?s
8 DIMMs (2 per CPU) 512 MB per DIMM
DDR registered 400 MHz CL 2.5
3 Intel PRO 1000MT Dual Port Server
Adapters (6 gigabit ports total)
2 PCI-X busses
2 LAN cards (4 ports) on 100 MHz PCI-X bus
1 LAN card (2 ports) on 66 MHz PCI-X bus
36 gig SCSI disk
Novell SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2
Vsftpd FTP server

The team, which included folks from AMD (Quote, Chart), Cisco (Quote, Chart), Microsoft Research, Newisys, and S2io, transferred 859 gigabytes of data in less than 17 minutes. It did so at a rate of 6.63 gigabits per second (define) between the CERN facility in Geneva, Switzerland, and Caltech in Pasadena, Calif., a distance of more than 15,766 kilometers, or approximately 9,800 miles.