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Comment by bio4m | Hacker News Reader

The really interesting bit for me is that theres a plugin module with a FPGA that can be programmed by the end user.

Which means simple apps wont even have their traffic leave the switch. I can think of a ton of uses for that, especially from a security perspective.

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Exablaze also sells NICs with an FPGA as does SolarFlare. You can get an FPGA in an Arista switch as well. Very cool stuff indeed.

I don't think Arista sells that device anymore. Having said that, the Arista device (7124FX?) only had the FPGA on 8 out of 24 ports and the latency through the transceivers was pretty terrible. Very few people took it up.

The Solarflare device had (has?) the FPGA in a strange place, behind the NIC controller. AFAIK, the Exablaze NIC is pure FPGA which again saves on latency.

That's table stakes at this point. Arista has had a programmable FPGA for years.

It's not just an FPGA, the 2x application bays support each support 48ports of connectivity to anything, at this point it's "just" a 48port FPGA implementing the worlds fastest layer 2+ switch, but it could be anything in there. The arista device only supported 8 ports and the transceiver latencies were terrible.

Indeed! It looks to me like there's two of them, so the potential is pretty incredible.

deadgrey19... familiar name. Aren't you Matt Grosvenor who used to or still does work with Exablaze?

exablaze might not even be able to keep their ip as it remains subject to dispute: http://meanderful.blogspot.com/p/exablaze-and-zomojo.html

The bio you submitted to STAC says you worked at Exablaze: "He is an experienced software and hardware developer and has worked for a collection of start-ups including Exablaze,Zomojo..."

https://stacresearch.com/system/files/summit/files/stac_summ...

Thanks. Yes, I used to work at Zomojo (Zomojo.com), a prop-trading HFT firm which is also Exablaze's parent company. I'm now a doctoral researcher at the university of Cambridge although I do still maintain a good relationship with Exabalze and have been called to consult for them from time to time. At Cambridge we have installed and use many Exablaze devices in our research work. Full details can be found on my profile with links to my current work. (quick link here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netos/camsas/people.htm...)

The Exablaze announcement was made today at the London STAC summit at which I was invited to speak on unrelated work.

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