Comment by p_l
12 hours ago
No, the half-bridge is less capable for various functions, but happens to have hardware PPPoE offload which makes it faster for this specific function but not for others
12 hours ago
No, the half-bridge is less capable for various functions, but happens to have hardware PPPoE offload which makes it faster for this specific function but not for others
Could you go into more detail - how is the half-bridge less capable? (I'm not familiar with ether device, but the ultimate solution seems like a sub-optimal solution to me?)
Essentially, it's a case of smaller device with less powerful CPU and less powerful routing offloads, but which happens to have a hardware offload for the specific use case that they needed offloading - PPPoE.
As the article itself mentions, hardware PPPoE is often present on lower shelf chips, but missing from higher end chips that in turn have more switching/routing capabilities.