alt Hacker NewsI'm not trolling here: Do you think that Marvell sells the chips wholesale buy the vendor buys the feature set (IP/drivers/whatever)? That would allow Marvell to effectively sell the same silicon but segment the market depending upon what buyers needs. Example: A buyer might need a config that is just a bunch of 50GB/s ports and another 100GB/s ports and another a mix. (I'm thinking about blowing fuses in the manuf phase, similar to what AMD and Intel do.) I write this as a complete noob in switching hardware.
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wtallis • yesterday at 3:06 PM
I think if Marvell were doing that, they would have more part numbers in their catalog.
The Marvell 98DX7335 switch ASIC has 32 lanes that can be configured any way the vendor wants. There aren't any fuses and it can even be reconfigured at runtime (e.g. a 400G port can be split into 2x200G).
Are the smaller 98DX7325 and 98DX7321 the same chip with fuses blown? I wouldn't be surprised.