Hardware Podcasts

The Network Behind the Network

Oxide and Friends · 9 May 2023 · 1h 39m · Episode 13

What this episode covers

Oxide colleagues Arjen Roodselaar, Matt Keeter, and John Gallagher join Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal to detail the design and debugging of Oxide's 'Monorail' management network. They explain the decision to abandon NCSI in favor of a separate network using Microchip VSC7448 switches and 100BASE-FX signaling over twinax cables. The team discusses the complex bring-up of the switch firmware, the development of custom debugging tooling in Hubris and Humility, and the critical capability to stream OS images over the slow management link for remote recovery.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Oxide Computer Company
Products
Hubris, Humility
Chips
Microchip VSC7448, Tofino
Also
100BASE-FX, QSGMII

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