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Support for Aquantia AQC113 and AQC113C Ethernet Controllers on FreeBSD

A GitHub issue highlights the pressing need for FreeBSD to gain driver support for modern Aquantia AQC113 and AQC113C Ethernet controllers. This request addresses a common pain point for users seeking high-performance networking on open-source systems. The addition of these drivers would significantly enhance FreeBSD's hardware compatibility, aligning it with capabilities already present in OpenBSD and Linux.

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#13
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Mar 11, 7:00 AM
Last Seen
Mar 11, 10:00 AM
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The Lowdown

A crucial feature request has been lodged on GitHub, seeking to integrate driver support for the Aquantia AQC113 and AQC113C Ethernet controllers into FreeBSD. These controllers are increasingly prevalent in high-performance networking setups, including NAS systems, servers, and workstations, making their absence a noticeable limitation for FreeBSD users.

  • The Aquantia AQC113 and AQC113C controllers, commonly found in 10GbE hardware, are currently detected by FreeBSD but lack functional drivers.
  • FreeBSD's existing aquantia-atlantic-kmod driver only supports the older AQC107 family, leaving newer chipsets unsupported.
  • This deficiency prevents FreeBSD from fully utilizing modern NBase-T and 10GBase-T networking capabilities provided by these controllers.
  • Other open-source operating systems, such as OpenBSD (via its aq driver) and Linux (via its atlantic driver), already offer robust support for these specific Aquantia devices.
  • The request implores developers to either extend the existing driver or create a new one, with the submitter offering to assist with testing and debugging.

Implementing support for the AQC113 family would be a substantial improvement for FreeBSD, bolstering its appeal for high-performance computing and enterprise-grade hardware, and ensuring it keeps pace with contemporary networking standards.