From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Wed, 1 Oct 2025 05:05:55 -0000 (UTC), I wrote:   
      
   > You’re thinking in terms of low-margin products using MIPS, aren’t you?   
   > While that may be partially true, there are also some pretty high-margin   
   > ones indeed.   
      
   As an example, I have with me a second-hand Cisco 3850 switch, which I   
   have been learning about for a customer. I have no idea what they cost new   
   -- no doubt something substantial. I think they started making them in   
   2013 -- long after Windows NT for MIPS and all the other non-x86   
   architectures had gone defunct.   
      
   When you power it up, it says it has a “Cavium Octeon II” processor. it is   
   running “Open IOS XE”, which is a version of Cisco’s well-known IOS   
   network-management platform. It’s built on a Linux kernel, and makes use   
   of Linux’s container capabilities to allow the customer to run custom   
   Python code on the switch.   
      
   So that’s some pretty beefy compute capabilities, beyond those of some   
   dinky little embedded controller, wouldn’t you say?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)