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Open Source and FPGA Maker Board for Networking

https://privateisland.tech/betsy
23•private_island•11h ago

Comments

bcrl•5h ago
I've had some fun learning how to implement various bits and pieces of networking on FPGAs as a hobby for a while, and while boards like this that focus on gigabit network are fine, the fact is that there are a lot of FPGA boards with gigabit and 100Mbps interfaces. What there are not enough of are low cost boards that can do 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps and 10Gbps. Lattice has some very affordable FPGAs with 5Gbps SERDES, and their newer 10Gbps capable chips remain extremely affordable.

One of the things I would absolutely love to have are a couple of FPGAs boards in SFP and QSFP form factors. Why might you ask? Because it would be seriously useful to have a PPPoE / L2TP data plane to plug into the port of a 100Gbps capable switch for use in the network edge. Modern ethernet switches have plenty of Layer 3 networking capabilities, but most switch vendors fail to expose any functionality for these protocols even though the underlying ASICs often enough have the capability to handle them. Sure, you'll never see these protocols in a cloud data center, but plenty of incumbent telecoms make use of them in their FTTP networks due to the legacy of xDSL deployments and the need to support wholesale access to those networks. Sadly, developing such a board is beyond my hobbyist electronics capabilities, but I'd have no problem bashing a bunch of Verilog / VHDL into shape to make it work in fairly short order... I just hope it uses an FPGA like the Polarfire for which the SERDES are about 100x easier to use than the gawd awful Xilinx 7 series (KC705, I'm glaring at you for eating weeks of my hobbyist life to that bring up).

Aromasin•3h ago
You can absolutely do this using something like a CertusProNX from Lattice (I much prefer it to the Polarfire), mounting an SFP/SFP+ cage onto the FMC connector of the board, and wire their transceiver lanes to the FPGA SERDES pins. HiTech Global has a 4-port SFP/SFP+ FMC module. I believe there are also QSFP mezzanine cards but I haven't looked much into that. ISI or Trenz probably make something.
jauntywundrkind•4h ago
NetFPGA has been around since 2007, with NetFPGA-1G. They have some very fancy offerings these days, well past the 4 x 1Gbe they started with.

https://netfpga.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetFPGA

duskwuff•2h ago
Maybe I'm just jaded and demanding, but:

1) As others mentioned, two GbE interfaces seems really limited for a 2025 project. Modern FPGAs can support 100GbE and up - I don't necessarily expect that on a hobbyist-level project, of course, but 1GbE is well behind the curve.

2) There don't appear to be any hardware design files (e.g. schematics, PCB layouts) in the Git repository. In fact, the only mention of the current FPGA is a single text file stating that "Cyclone 10 GX port in progress"...

3) There's basically zero open source support for Intel/Altera FPGAs. Yes, you can open-source your HDL, but the vendor tools are all closed-source and there's no alternatives.

OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

https://www.kbkg.com/feature/house-passes-tax-bill-sending-to-president-for-signature
281•tareqak•7h ago•154 comments

Baba Is Eval

https://fi-le.net/baba/
125•fi-le•1d ago•12 comments

N-Back – A Minimal, Adaptive Dual N-Back Game for Brain Training

https://n-back.net
12•gregzeng95•2d ago•2 comments

Why AO3 Was Down

https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/s/67nQid89MW
84•danso•5h ago•18 comments

Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage

https://maalvika.substack.com/p/being-too-ambitious-is-a-clever-form
258•alihm•10h ago•70 comments

Learn to love the moat of low status

https://usefulfictions.substack.com/p/learn-to-love-the-moat-of-low-status
100•jger15•2d ago•39 comments

Telli (YC F24) Is Hiring Engineers [On-Site Berlin]

https://hi.telli.com/join-us
1•sebselassie•30m ago

Clarifying Our Pricing

https://cursor.com/en/blog/june-2025-pricing
18•twapi•2h ago•6 comments

Mini NASes marry NVMe to Intel's efficient chip

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/mini-nases-marry-nvme-intels-efficient-chip
341•ingve•16h ago•172 comments

The messy reality of SIMD (vector) functions

https://johnnysswlab.com/the-messy-reality-of-simd-vector-functions/
5•mfiguiere•1h ago•0 comments

The History of Electronic Music in 476 Tracks (1937–2001)

https://www.openculture.com/2025/06/the-history-of-electronic-music-in-476-tracks.html
28•bookofjoe•2d ago•5 comments

How to Incapacitate Google Tag Manager and Why You Should (2022)

https://backlit.neocities.org/incapacitate-google-tag-manager
153•fsflover•13h ago•107 comments

I convinced my K8s team to go AWS serverless. Spoiler, they didn't

https://medium.com/@dnsearching/how-i-convinced-my-k8s-team-to-go-aws-serverless-5104e880e7a4
11•gpi•2d ago•20 comments

Amiga Linux (1993)

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.amiga.emulations/c/xUgrpylQOXk
14•marcodiego•4h ago•4 comments

EverQuest

https://www.filfre.net/2025/07/everquest/
211•dmazin•15h ago•101 comments

Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

https://sailhealth.substack.com/p/why-i-left-my-tech-job-to-work-on
308•glasscannon•18h ago•183 comments

Sleeping beauty Bitcoin wallets wake up after 14 years to the tune of $2B

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sleeping-beauty-bitcoin-wallets-wake-up-after-14-years-to-the-tune-of-2-billion-79f1f11f
129•aorloff•12h ago•260 comments

Nvidia is full of shit

https://blog.sebin-nyshkim.net/posts/nvidia-is-full-of-shit/
584•todsacerdoti•9h ago•304 comments

Vortex (Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport Et D'Exploration)

https://www.dassault-aviation.com/en/space/aerospace-vehicles/vortex-vehicule-orbital-reutilisable-de-transport-et-dexploration/
19•ggm-at-algebras•3d ago•4 comments

Larry (cat)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_(cat)
294•dcminter•21h ago•68 comments

In a milestone for Manhattan, a pair of coyotes has made Central Park their home

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/in-a-milestone-for-manhattan-a-pair-of-coyotes-has-made-central-park-their-home-180986892/
122•sohkamyung•3d ago•117 comments

The story behind Caesar salad

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/story-behind-caesar-salad
98•Bluestein•11h ago•48 comments

The Amiga 3000 Unix and Sun Microsystems: Deal or No Deal?

https://www.datagubbe.se/amix/
49•wicket•10h ago•5 comments

Robots move Shanghai city block [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZccC9BnT8k
94•surprisetalk•1d ago•34 comments

The ITTAGE indirect branch predictor

https://blog.nelhage.com/post/ittage-branch-predictor/
38•Bogdanp•7h ago•11 comments

Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

https://github.com/maciej-trebacz/tower-of-time-game
241•M4v3R•18h ago•125 comments

Writing a Game Boy Emulator in OCaml

https://linoscope.github.io/writing-a-game-boy-emulator-in-ocaml/
231•ibobev•21h ago•42 comments

Show HN: AirBending – Hand gesture based macOS app MIDI controller

https://www.nanassound.com/products/software/airbending
65•bepitulaz•11h ago•16 comments

Wind Knitting Factory

https://www.merelkarhof.nl/work/wind-knitting-factory
237•bschne•1d ago•60 comments

ADXL345 Die Analysis

https://www.tinytransistors.net/2024/08/25/adxl345/
26•picture•4h ago•0 comments