Linux is somewhat a must. The budget of this project does not allow=20 other alternatives.. but maybe I'm wrong. I'll do some more research. Maybe= running an RTOS kernel and linking the ethernet related things the RT core might do the trick. But this also exceeds my current experience le= vel. I've looked at the supported hw list of dd-wrt, inspected some of the most = widely used chips in the routers. It is a good starting point indeed. Testi= ng using a consumer router and DD-WRT crossed my mind also. I think I will = order some consumer routers with MIPS and ARM architectures with different = processor frequencies and see how they perform. I just wanted to see if someone out there has experience with this kind of = setup and would give me some advice on at least what processor@speed should= be used for such task. Thanks again for the info. Robert --- On Wed, 11/24/10, William "Chops" Westfield wrote: From: William "Chops" Westfield Subject: Re: [TECH] Embedded ethernet question (processor choice) To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 1:05 PM On Nov 23, 2010, at 1:51 PM, Robert Csaba Molnar wrote: > It is required to keep response times below 10 ms at all times. Response times of what, to what?=A0 IMNSHO, this is going to be pretty=A0=20 difficult sticking with linux, because linux is not a "real time=A0=20 operating system", and guaranteeing <10ms behavior is getting into the=A0=20 realm of things where you might need some of those "real time" features. PPC, MIPS, and ARM are all pretty equivalent.=A0 I think PPC and MIPS=A0=20 may have a head start in "router-like-box" department; more chips with=A0=20 multiple ethernet MACs compared with ARM. Consumer routers are almost all based on chip vendor reference designs=A0=20 and would probably make a good starting platform for experimentation=A0=20 and performance measurement, as appropriate.=A0 The ddtwrt and/or=A0=20 openwrt list of supported hardware should give you a lot of info on=A0=20 what chips are out there... BillW --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .