On Thu, Apr 27, 2006 at 11:40:30PM -0700, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
1 billion bits per second is 1*10^9 bits, contrast with 2^30 bits which bc says is 1073741824
As opposed to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibit
As to measuring throughput, http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/netpipe/ is your friend.
You might also look into jumbo frames, if your switch fabric supports it. See also http://dcs.nac.uci.edu/~strombrg/jumbo.html