Realtek Previews Platform for Sub-$100 5GbE Network Switches
Looks like more affordable 5 gigabit ethernet switches on the way at last, aiming for under $20/port.
Realtek RTL9303 (cheaper 5GbE on the way)
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Looks like more affordable 5 gigabit ethernet switches on the way at last, aiming for under $20/port.
This is likely the most important part, especially since 2.5G runs at 100M over 5e and 5G does not.
Will these support PoE?
My memory is most NbaseT ports I have seen didn't support 10Mbps by the way. 100/1000/2500/5000 only.
My memory is most NbaseT ports I have seen didn't support 10Mbps by the way. 100/1000/2500/5000 only.
They're going for the we want to be the cheapest so every device gets 2.5/5Gbs cheap. Just like how there's Gigabit Ethernet on almost everything now. 10/100 as a choice still exists when designing devices as a cost savings when you multiply it out by the millions.
PoE support is decoupled from the Ethernet part. Whoever is building the switches gets to decide if they want to add the power electronics needed for PoE in front of the ASICs.
Broadcom dropped 10Mbps support in many (most?) of their ASICs years ago. Most new gear today is physically incapable of 10Mbps operation.
This is what I was looking for, if PoE electronics were part of say RTL8251B or if it was a separate component in between the physical port traces and that chip.
If you wanted to build a managed switch that monitored PoE status/power usage, wouldn't that need to be designed into the RTL9303 SoC? Or is that generic enough that the switch vendor could map a couple GPIO pins (assuming the SoC has some available) to the PoE chips' status lines and then implement it in firmware?
There are already managed switches with 2.5Gbit for around $10-12 a port (not name brand but still...) and PoE for not too much more I think. The NIC for a PC is probably more expensive because of the different cost density and different support costs, driver/software development, etc.
As for what switch makers actually do and pay for all that, who knows? It probably varies a lot between companies based on their costs for the final product (support and marketing and other costs that change a lot between different brands that target different markets).
As for what switch makers actually do and pay for all that, who knows? It probably varies a lot between companies based on their costs for the final product (support and marketing and other costs that change a lot between different brands that target different markets).
Looks like the power/heat divide still seems to be between 1Gb/2.5Gb on the cool side and 5Gb/10Gb on the hot side. The 5Gb wattage improvements seem to be tracking with improvements I've seen in 10GBaseT modules (this new 5Gb says 1.7W, the newest 10Gb module I've seen says 1.8W). 2.5Gb is around maybe 0.3W these days? I'm assuming there's something inherent in 5Gb that makes it more similar to 10Gb, in terms of power? If so, 5Gb still seems neither here nor there to me.