Interesting. I hope 3rd parties come along and make some less common FACE modules.
Plus, I hope Compulab sells FACE modules separately. Thus I could add a 1GbpsE/4xUSB
FACE module to a "fit-PC3 Pro Barebone".
Checking your requirements for 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports, we get the following;
- PCIe 2.0 lanes are 500MBps each direction, and full-duplex
- fit-PC3's FACE connector has 4 x PCIe 2.0 lanes, thus 2,000MBps
- 1Gbps Ethernet is about 100MBps each direction, and full-duplex
- 8 x 1Gbps = 800MBps
(Note: MBps are MegaBytes per second, and Gbps are Gigabits per second)
Thus, well with in the fit-PC3's interface design limits.
All that said, if there is high traffic that needs to be processed by the fit-PC3, then you would do better
with a dual core 1.65Ghz model. Like the existing model with 4Gbps Ethernet FACE module. Moving
huge amounts of data without specialized hardware, (like Cisco switches and routers have), takes alot
of CPU horse power.
In fact, unless you need some special handling on each port, a 9 or 10 port integrated Ethernet
switch might met your needs. (The 9 or 10 figure comes from having 1 or 2 internal fit-PC3 network
connections).
Also note that there is likely a power limit on a fit-PC3's FACE module. Adding 4 more network ports
over the existing 4 port Gigabit Ethernet FACE module, (for example, 4 x 2 port Gigabit controller chips),
might add too much power draw. Of course, today we now have 4 port Gigabit controller chips that
might use less power than single or dual port Gigabit controllers.