Open Hardware Ethernet Switch project, part 1

Re:Open Hardware Ethernet Switch project, part 1 by userbinator on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @12:39AM (#43969675)

but it would be fantastic if something like the simple 4-port switch design could be spun out as an open source project that people could iterate on.

You can just get something like a Realtek single-chip switch IC and put it on a PCB. Low-port-count unmanaged switches are cheap commodity products already.

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Re:Open Hardware Ethernet Switch project, part 1 by superb_dev on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @01:04AM (#43969761)

But not a cheap open source commodity

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Re:Open Hardware Ethernet Switch project, part 1 by azonenberg on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @01:06AM (#43969769)

This is not going to be cheap. That was never the goal.

In low volume when you combine several custom multilayer boards, custom powder-coated sheet metal work, etc even if you allow for the practically-free recycled FPGA this is going to probably end up being a $5-10K project. The last custom one-off 1U I did from ProtoCase was like $800ish just for the enclosure, and that was before the recent tariff hikes.

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Re:Open Hardware Ethernet Switch project, part 1 by superb_dev on Wednesday May 14, 2025 @08:13PM (#43990532)

Oh fair, maybe just “open source commodity”

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Re:Open Hardware Ethernet Switch project, part 1 by ajb on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @03:27AM (#43970432)

You can actually now get realtek rtl838x based ones that run openWRT. That's open firmware not open hardware, but good for most purposes.

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