Tuesday, June 18th 2024
Realtek is Aiming to Make 5 Gbps Ethernet Switches More Affordable with New Platform
At Computex, Realtek was showing off a new 5 Gbps switch platform which is set to bring much more affordable high-speed Ethernet switches to the consumer market. At the core of the new switch platform sits Realtek's RTL9303 which is an eight port 10 Gbps switch controller. This was released a few years ago as a low cost 10 Gbps switch IC, but as it still required third party PHYs, it never really took off. The RTL9303 is built around an 800 MHz MIPS 34Kc CPU and supports up to 1 GB of DDR3 RAM as well as 64 MB of SPI NOR Flash for the firmware.
When combined with Realtek's RTL8251B 5 Gbps PHY, the end result is a comparably low-cost 5 Gbps switch. According to Ananadtech, Realtek is expecting a US$25 price per port, which is only about $10 more per port than your typical 2.5 Gbps switch today, even though some are as little as US$10 per port. When combined with a Realtek RTL8126 PCIe based 5 Gbps NIC which retails from around US$30, 5 Gbps Ethernet looks like a very sensible option in terms of price/performance. Admittedly 2.5 Gbps Ethernet cards can be had for as little as $13, but they started out at a higher price point compared to what 5 Gbps NICs are already selling for. Meanwhile, 10 Gbps NICs are still stuck at around US$80-90, with switches in most cases costing at least US$45 per port, but often a lot more. 5 Gbps Ethernet also has the advantage of being able to operate on CAT 5e cabling at up to 60 metres and CAT 6 cabling at up 100 metres, which means there's no need to replace older cabling to benefit from it.
Source:
Anandtech
When combined with Realtek's RTL8251B 5 Gbps PHY, the end result is a comparably low-cost 5 Gbps switch. According to Ananadtech, Realtek is expecting a US$25 price per port, which is only about $10 more per port than your typical 2.5 Gbps switch today, even though some are as little as US$10 per port. When combined with a Realtek RTL8126 PCIe based 5 Gbps NIC which retails from around US$30, 5 Gbps Ethernet looks like a very sensible option in terms of price/performance. Admittedly 2.5 Gbps Ethernet cards can be had for as little as $13, but they started out at a higher price point compared to what 5 Gbps NICs are already selling for. Meanwhile, 10 Gbps NICs are still stuck at around US$80-90, with switches in most cases costing at least US$45 per port, but often a lot more. 5 Gbps Ethernet also has the advantage of being able to operate on CAT 5e cabling at up to 60 metres and CAT 6 cabling at up 100 metres, which means there's no need to replace older cabling to benefit from it.
54 Comments on Realtek is Aiming to Make 5 Gbps Ethernet Switches More Affordable with New Platform
I got my two Aquantia (now Marvell) cards during a Black Friday deal back in 2017 for $69 a pop, although the MSRP back then was $127.
Equivalent cards today are still $80-90.
Aquantia's 5 Gbps card was $99 back then, but it was never very popular due to the lack of suitable switches.
With Realtek's new cards going for $30-40 already, that's quite a game changer imho, if we'll really see $100-120 switches.
I really don't know enough about this to criticize Realtek. On the one hand, when NBASE-T first came up I was always told that it was nonsense for consumers since 2.5GbE/5GbE uses the same tech as 10GbE, just with lower frequencies for old cabling, but that the short cabling distances in private homes would allow 10GbE anyway. Only reason for 2.5GbE-NICs to be cheaper I could think of were that PCIe2.0x1 (for 2.5GbE) or PCIe3.0x1 (for 5GbE) is enough instead of PCIe3.0x2/4.0x1 for 10GbE (most 10GbE-NICs are Gen2/3/4x4).
Then came Realtek RTL8125 and Intel i225 with their sub 30$ PCIe-cards, now sub 20$, while 10GbE even with Aquantia AQC107/113 was still above 100$. Switches with 8-16x2.5GbE are still much cheaper than any Switrch with 4+x10GbE, albeit the cheapest switches with 8x2.5GbE offer at least 2x10GbE. But switches with 5x2.5GbE cost less than half what those do...
Since 5GbE should be standard on better quipped upcoming X870- and Z890-mainboards, I can see 5GbE replacing 2.5GbE before 10GbE gets any cheaper.
Meanwhile, 800GbE ist at the horizon.
It's not just about the PCIe interface, but yes, 10 Gbps needs at least two PCIe 3.0 lanes. The key issues is more about thermals and Realtek has managed to produce 5 Gbps chips that only draw 1.7 Watts, which is around half of that of the old Aquantia chips and from what I know, the new Marvell ones aren't any more power efficient.Actually, I just saw an RTL8125 card on Amazon for $13.This. It's already happening on higher-end motherboards.USB4 networking apparently works, just like Thunderbolt networking, but both are limited to 10 Gbps...
Marvell appears to be keeping up that tradition.
Realtek has clearly worked out a way to make it all in a much more cost efficient way.
Admittedly, the AQC113 isn't that big, but still a lot more complex than Realtek's RTL8126.
Do we in fact know that the tiniest chips have even been produced? I have yet to see any products with those chips.
The company made a better 2.5 Gbps Ethernet controller than Intel and Realtek already has Linux drivers for the 5 Gbps, that even works with the RPi 5.
www.jiribrejcha.net/2024/06/full-5-gigabit-ethernet-on-raspberry-pi-5-with-iocrest-realtek-rtl8126-adapter/I've had a Trendnet TEG-S380 for a few months now and I believe it's Realtek based. It hasn't missed a beat.
www.servethehome.com/sfp-to-10gbase-t-adapter-module-buyers-guide/
www.servethehome.com/10gtek-asf-10g-t-10gbase-tx-sfp-to-10gbase-t-module-review/
Now if the friggin money-grubbin, pork-stuffin ISP's would just give us the high-speed connections that could actually make use of them, this would be great for sure....
Yea I know alot of folk will get into these for their internal lans/sans/servers etc and all, but just sayin....
I feel the need....the need for (more) speed -Maverick & Goose !
Earned quite a bit of respect.
Still, it's gonna take some more 'moving and shaking' before I stop thinking of Realtek as 'The Budget IC company'.
Also, all this enterprise equipment is antique. Anything in the PCI-E g2x8 HHHL formfactor can and should be easily replaced with a g3x1 or g4x1 unit by now and with the modern WDM. I can already hear the screeching from every side that "this isn't enough PCI-E bandwidth" for dual 10GbE" or even single. Not the point. We need to start seeing newer stuff being produced even if it has flaws. That's very likely not going to happen until we start seeing capable network junction boxes appear. Another chicken/egg problem.