Dumb VIA, Smart Java?

VIA relies on NIC and O/S for protection
O/S page mappings to restrict access to NIC memory
NIC must translate virtual addresses
NIC must do bounds-checking 

Move protection into JVM?
Treat the NIC as a "slave" to the JVM
Move O/S+NIC complexity into Java classes
Should be able to beat the pants off of VIA and C!

DumbVIA Prototype
Doorbell --> Simple descriptor
Spoon-feed NIC with physical addresses for DMA
No more NIC page translation, TLB, etc.
Eliminate extra DMA for each xmit/receive
Descriptor pushed directly to NIC RAM