A PCIe network interface card that adds full router capabilities to your servers

Re:A PCIe network interface card that adds full router capab... by Alupis on Wednesday March 30, 2022 @03:56PM (#30860049)

Cheaper than $199 (probably around $175 street price is my guess), 0U's, no licensing or reoccurring fees, and consumes zero host resources? Even as just a physical firewall or hardware vpn endpoint in front of a colo'ed server, using one SFP28 in full passthrough... this thing sounds incredible.

I think people that feel this device is pointless just have not been in a situation where this device is exactly what they needed. It is a niche device, admittedly.

However, you have my attention - what device are you referring to that does this better and cheaper?

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Re:A PCIe network interface card that adds full router capab... by ikiris on Friday April 01, 2022 @12:17AM (#30875128)

This is all better done with ACLs or direct programming on a broadcom chipset in a traditional scale top of rack switch or similar, or better done in the actual host CPU land because its something complicated that can't be done with simple ACL / TCAM programming.

Seriously, there isn't a good problem here that this solution solves that isn't better done elsewhere.

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Re:A PCIe network interface card that adds full router capab... by Alupis on Friday April 01, 2022 @03:27PM (#30882293)

Top of rack requires space, which must be paid for monthly in a colo'ed environment, or reduces usable space (ie. revenue generating space) for hosting/cloud providers.

Done in actual host CPU consumes resources.

Direct programming on a chipset is a lot more complicated than running an off the shelf router.

Yes this is a niche product - but your proposed alternatives are silly in most cases where just slapping a zero U device into an unused PCIe port is far less complicated, less expensive, and easier to maintain.

This thing costs less than $200, a one time cost. Just reading the Broadcom documentation alone will cost your organization more than that...

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Re:A PCIe network interface card that adds full router capab... by ikiris on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @10:54PM (#30927967)

So you don't plug servers into an existing switch? Do they just connect via magic or something?

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