News World's smallest, cheapest network switch developed by US high school robotics team — Murex Robotics makes the hardware fully open-source

[Admin]

Murex Robotics, a high school robotics team, makes their world's-smallest network switch fully open-source. The move comes as part of their mission to democratize technology.

World's smallest, cheapest network switch developed by US high school robotics team — Murex Robotics makes the hardware fully open-source : Read more

 

[Metal Messiah.]

Gimme some break. World's smallest, not exactly ! ? Better label this as: "world's smallest 5-port unmanaged switch"

This one by Murex Robotics measures: 44.9mm by 42.2mm.

BotBlox SwitchBlox Nano is 25.50 x 25.50 mm, but of course with two fewer ports (BotBlox's 3-port switch).

https://botblox.io/products/micro-ethernet-switch


Also, since the team threw ISO/IEC 8877 out of the equation, which is referenced by 100BASE-TX, better think again before calling it an "Ethernet switch."

 

[Metal Messiah.]

This alternative model would fit the team's description, BotBlox's 5-port unmanaged switch, and comparing this seems reasonable:

44.5mm (1.75 inches) by 44.5mm

https://botblox.io/products/small-ethernet-switch

So yes, Murex Robotics's invention should be better dubbed as the world's smallest "5-port unmanaged switch", which is of course open-source and cost-effective as well. Not the world's smallest.

 

[TechyIT223]

High school in full form 🎒

I guess use case is more on Robotics here rather than industrial purpose. Are these guys aiming for the MATE ROV competition though??🤔

 

[GoofyOne]

Nice job! 😇 I am not too interested in the, who is smaller/better, etc. It is great that schools and their students are getting stuck into designing and building their own stuff.

{GoofyOne's 2c worth, which may or may not be actually worth 2c}

 

[das_stig]

Agree with GoofyOne, for students to come up with this impressive, now design an inexpessive standard 24 port 10Gbe managed switch for £50 and take my money !

 

[TechyIT223]

They got financial support for this project

 

[TechyIT223]

5K to be specific 😎

 

[thisisaname]

hardware fully open-source

Is that the same as patent free?

 

[TechyIT223]

I don't know much but I suppose going open source doesn't guarantee a patent free application unless the original party applies for it. I mean software provided under an open source licence can still be subjected to copyright protection IMO.

It means they are not the same

What do you guys think?

 

[bill001g]

I would doubt this project had all the lawyers it takes to be sure your hardware is not in violation of patents. Way too many patent troll companies exist.
It all depends on if they actually had their own chips produced or they are using something from a vendor.

Most switches because of the speed required do not use what most people think of as software. Most the function is done asic chips which I guess could be called software before you manufacture the chips.

You still see actual software in very advanced switches..but this quickly blurs the line into what the difference between router/firewall/switch is.

 

[TechyIT223]

What do these patent troll companies actually gain by all this agendas?

 

[bill001g]

What do these patent troll companies actually gain by all this agendas?

They buy a bunch of patents mostly that are garbage but hope that some company in the future might actually develop very successful product and they can jump out and try to grab some of the money. This would all be fixed if the company that had th patent actually had to be working on the idea rather than just a bunch of paper.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

It means they are not the same

Both are different. Yes.

I would doubt this project had all the lawyers it takes to be sure your hardware is not in violation of patents. Way too many patent troll companies exist.
It all depends on if they actually had their own chips produced or they are using something from a vendor.

Yes, exactly this !

 

[bill001g]

So after some digging around their docs maybe the circuit board is all they designed. They are using a off the shelf 5 port switch chip as well as a couple ethernet transformer buffer chips. Everything else are power related and it seems even most the capacitor and resistor values come from the chip vendor recommendations.

The design itself it straight out the switch manufactures docs so it gets into the grey area of creating something.

Then again it is a great accomplishment for high school kids. Nobody would expect them to be able to actually design a chip.
When I got my master in EE i quick found I disliked anything related to manufacture of chips.

 

[TechyIT223]

They buy a bunch of patents mostly that are garbage but hope that some company in the future might actually develop very successful product and they can jump out and try to grab some of the money. This would all be fixed if the company that had th patent actually had to be working on the idea rather than just a bunch of paper.

Then most probably in this case these patent trolls would be least bothered in this project after all. It makes sense though.

 

[mavroxur]

I don't mean to be "that guy" but there's been similar 5 port switch PCBs on ebay and alibaba for years. Most are less than $20 and have dimensions almost identical to theirs...... Not sure if I can post links or not here but ebay "DC 5V 5 Port Hub Switch Module Ethernet Switch Module" is $17 shipped on eBay.

 

[TechyIT223]

These high school project just seems to be over hyped to get some attention. Nothing much. Most of their claims seems as if they are bound for a controversy.