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RISC-V Router

143 points by janandonly

by Aurornis

5 subcomments

> StartWRT: Start9's fork of OpenWrt, including a modern GUI, that reimagines the router experience from first principles.
I wish them the best of luck with their hardware venture, but a custom fork of OpenWRT is not what I'd want for a router from a small startup.
I can't even begin to count how many startups have done crowdfunding projects for new hardware and tried to get too custom with the software stack before the company went under.
Others already covered the high price for the specs, but we really need to see some benchmarks for things that matter: Routing throughput, VPN throughput, and other real numbers. Faster ports aren't helpful if the CPU can't process packets fast enough.

by eqvinox

1 subcomments

> Built on a RISC-V processor with an open-source boot stack and operating system, it is the most open router on the market […]
No it's not [cont'd]
> with a fully open-source boot stack (OpenSBI, U-Boot), open-source Linux kernel, and published board schematics.
You can all get all that for both OpenWrt One and Turris. Possibly more, they go beyond schematics on HW design. And that CPU is no more "open" than the libre end of ARM chips elsewhere.
https://project.turris.cz/en/hardware-documentation.html - that's the bar. CERN OHL (or equiv) with not only schematics but gerbers.
And, y'know, I rather get OpenWrt unforked from the OpenWrt people. Even the Turris people are burdened by OpenWrt "re-maintenance".

by NelsonMinar

1 subcomments

Is Start9 a well known company? The page by itself seems indistinguishable from a scam, but maybe they have a reputation that justifies their asking for $250,000?

by mintflow

0 subcomment

250k for openwrt based risc v router? Maybe need do more work such as using vyos + fdio/vpp

by Someone

1 subcomments

FTA:
> Hardware Specs > […] > Memory: 4GB LPDDR4 RAM > Storage: 16GB eMMC
In contrast, https://openwrt.org/supported_devices says:
> Sufficient Flash to accommodate OpenWrt firmware image
> 8MB min (bare minimum)
> 16MB better (will fit other applications)
> Sufficient RAM for stable operation
> 64MB min
> 128MB better
So, that’s 64 times the RAM, 1024 times the flash memory. If that’s necessary, what is it used for? If not, why pay for it?

by PunchyHamster

2 subcomments

BananaPi already sells boards with same CPU for around $100 with maybe $15-20 extra for case
https://docs.banana-pi.org/en/BPI-F3/BananaPi_BPI-F3
Is it doing anything different ? I assume at least made in US so it can be sold as router and not dev board ?

by prashantk_

0 subcomment

RISC-V shines in systems like this. I want systems (Embedded and low power systems) to be more RISC-V based.

by mieses

2 subcomments

Turris Omnia NG is also "open source" and has 2x 10 Gbps SFP+ and 4x 2.5 Gbps ethernet ports. StartWRT and Turris OS are both forks of OpenWRT, which is kind of annoying. The Turris project has been around a long time and has an active community.

by jsLavaGoat

2 subcomments

Love this in theory, but can't do it with only 2 ports. I need backup WAN.

by neuronexmachina

0 subcomment

Since this has a foreign-made processor and WiFi module, would this be blocked by the Trump FCC's foreign-made router ban?

by mixmastamyk

0 subcomment

Looks cool. I'd hoped for usb-c for power at least. Trying to get rid of usb-a.

by annoyingnoob

1 subcomments

Single WAN, Single LAN, is not actually what I would (or do) use for "home-based self-hosting". That hosted stuff gets its own network.

by phendrenad2

0 subcomment

> there is no open-firmware option for modern WiFi from any manufacturer
I wonder if this could be changed, if enough people got together and had a WiFi chip fabbed, or paid a company to open their firmware? I'm guessing the bar is higher than that, because the WiFi trade assoc. probably mandates closed firmware. So you'd have to create a competing (but open) WiFi standard and probably have to lobby the FCC to let us use it.

by DeathArrow

0 subcomment

$300 for 1 Gbit router + WiFi 6 seems too much for me when I can get one for $35.

by cyberax

1 subcomments

> Ethernet: 1 WAN Gb, 1 LAN Gb
Really? In 2026? Pass.
It needs to be _at_ _least_ two SFP+.

by vitali2y

0 subcomment

[dead]

by pshirshov

1 subcomments

> Router
> Ethernet: 1 WAN Gb, 1 LAN Gb
> $250000
Awesome.