Skeletons in Broadcom's closet

[Ericloewe]

This guy reverse-engineered the firmware on a 1 GbE Broadcom NIC. As it turns out, Broadcom's NIC division was actually a branch of the Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things:

I guess that somehow it's still cheaper than an I210, mysteriously.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ok, so maybe 10 bucks more for an I350 than a BCM5719 for volumes of around 100 ICs. The mux is around 80 cents in similar quantities.

I350: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Intel/NHI350AM4-S-LJ3Z?qs=jBH3i1P1BduA%2BjynGEZRiA==
BCM5719: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Broadcom-Avago/BCM5719A1KFBG?qs=7z%2BmIopC6/Ljjqjyy4lD1g==
NXP mux specified by Broadcom: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NXP-Semiconductors/CBTL01023GM115?qs=N31o%2Bt096gsU0SyKUxLWHg==

 

[Apollo]

Doesn't look like PCIe compliant to me.

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm sure the bit-banged clock is nowhere close to the PCIe spec, but that's not super relevant: they probably just need to fill up a small counter.