3 ms·
I recently upgraded my home network to 10 gigabit and was surprised by the amount of heat generated by 10 gig switches. Why do pure switching fabric ASICs gener
by trogdor 3y ago
I recently upgraded my home network to 10 gigabit and was surprised by the amount of heat generated by 10 gig switches. Why do pure switching fabric ASICs generate so much heat?
- nine_k 3y agoGates consume electricity when they switch: some energy is needed to flip a FET from "open" to "closed" or back. Then the gate stays in a particular state for some time, allowing the circuit to operate. The faster you switch a gate, the more often you have to pay the switching price, which cannot go too low, else the thermal noise would overcome it. So you spend roughly 10x the energy switching a 10 Gbps stream as you use for 1 Gbps stream. Newer, smaller gates consume less energy switching, but not 10x less.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hulitu 3y ago> Why do pure switching fabric ASICs generate so much heat? There is also the fact that they are consumer devices and margins have to be high so quality of the product is tailored accordingly.