OpenCompute Switches, A Cross-Post

[Isaac (.ike) Levy]

On Feb 21, 2014, at 2:08 PM, "Isaac (.ike) Levy" <ike at blackskyresearch.net> wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> Apologies in advance, this is certainly a sort of cross-post, as a sort of rallying cry.
> 
> Remember the ancient discussions about wishing we had 48 network ports, on a piece of hardware running *BSD?  Well, if anyone wants to join me, I'm dipping my toe in on list over at the OpenCompute networking project, I'd love to have more NYC*BUG folks over there who care about the networking (and switching hardware):
> 
> http://lists.opencompute.org/pipermail/opencompute-networking/2014-February/000106.html
> (The list appears to be quite light traffic.)
> 
> I think showing a strong and constructive *BSD presence there is both relevant, and useful.
> 
> Best,
> .ike

A URL dump followup, Just in case folks don't know much about the OpenCompute project:

--
Here is that Intel "Wish-ware" spec, from the OpenCompute (facebook) project.
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-briefs/onp-switch-reference-design-product-brief.pdf

What follows, is a URL dump of related press/pr articles, some fluffier than others, but all on the right track IMHO...

http://www.opencompute.org/
http://www.opencompute.org/projects/networking/

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/cisco-threatening-open-switch-coming-from-facebook-intel-and-broadcom/
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/05/facebook-aims-to-knock-cisco-down-a-peg-with-open-network-hardware/
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/111213-facebook-open-compute-project-picks-275862.html
http://gigaom.com/2013/11/11/facebooks-hardware-vp-says-were-very-close-to-open-source-switches/
http://www.networkcomputing.com/next-generation-data-center/news/networking/open-compute-project-considers-switch-sp/240163982

--
And even broader, the new buzzword, "Software Defined Networking", (SDN):
http://gigaom.com/2013/01/30/sdn-is-not-openflow-but-openflow-is-a-real-disruption/

Just sounds a lot like a UNIX box with lots of nics.  Hrm, if Wikipedia says "Software Defined Networking" is real, it must be, right? :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenFlow

But whatever, if this SDN vocabulary is what it takes to drag networking out of the dark ages, I'm all for it :)

https://www.opennetworking.org/sdn-resources/onf-products-listing

Rocket-
.ike