DIY Project High Performance Audio PC with high quality wiring

[MarcelNL]

the label on the sfp port shows:cn-0nphcm-28298-74b-0435-a00 

I cannot find anything that makes me think the difference can be seen from the outside

 

found this on the xilinx site: now to identify what serial it refers to/where it is located:

 

The various product briefs for the SFN8000 series can be found here: https://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/8000-series.html#documentation The "SFC9240" has picked up the name of the controller. This chip powers multiple different 8000-series cards. The full driver name should appear in the network adapter properties dialogue box. Or if you want to send us the serial number of MAC address, we can check that for you. (The first four digits of the serial number will tell you the model number) (The other stickers you see look like regulartory numbers)

 

so i found 85220021200 and the confirmation that the differences are firmware not hardware related.

 

So, 8522, great it's the proper version , the rest is still a bit of a mystery to me

 

 

 

 

[seeteeyou]

CN-0NPHCM-28298-74B-0435-A00 = PPID (Piece Part Identification) numbers from Dell

 

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-hk/000139589/how-to-find-the-ppid-piece-part-identification-on-dell-poweredge-parts

 

And then there's something about SFKEY

 

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/solarflare-sfn8522-20-shipped.25319/#post-234729

Quote

I'm not sure about which it was, but the card I got (SF-10942) didn't support any licensing (using SF utilities, SFKEY reported that it didn't support licensing). If MCTP over SMBus is a license feature, like Onload is, then mine at least didn't support it.

 

Solarflare Linux Utilities RPM (64bit) is linked below and there's a copy of SFKEY as mentioned above

 

https://support-nic.xilinx.com/wp/drivers

 

Apparently we could also get two different flavors (i.e. SFN8522 and SFN8522-Onload) from Dell

 

https://support-nic.xilinx.com/wp/oem

Quote

These documents apply to the following Solarflare Flareon Ultra SFN8522 and SFN8522-Onload 10GbE Adapters for Dell:

• Solarflare SFN8522 OLP 10Gb 2 Port SFP+ Adapter, Full Height; Dell P/N 540-BBTM; Customer Kit 540-BBTP
• Solarflare SFN8522 OLP 10Gb 2 Port SFP+ Adapter, Low Profile; Dell P/N 540-BBTL; Customer Kit 540-BBTI
• Solarflare SFN8522 10Gb 2 Port SFP+ Adapter, Full Height; Dell P/N 540-BBTO; Customer Kit 540-BBTJ
• Solarflare SFN8522 10Gb 2 Port SFP+ Adapter, Low Profile; Dell P/N 540-BBTN; Customer Kit 540-BBTK

 

I also looked at page 13 of Solarflare Server Adapter User Guide under Solarflare SFN8522 for Dell

 

https://support-nic.xilinx.com/wp/oem?sd=SF-103837-CD-20&pe=SF-117316-DH-9

 

Now let's compare the differences here

 

https://www.provantage.com/solarflare-communications~880SOLA.htm

 

Flareon Ultra Dual-Port 10GBE Server I/O Adapter

Manufacturer Part#  SFN8522
UPC Code: 081619101050

https://www.provantage.com/solarflare-communications-sfn8522~7SOLA01M.htm

 

Flareon Ultra Dual-Port 10GBE Server I/O Adapter with LL Firmware

Manufacturer Part#  SFN8522-PLUS
UPC Code: 816191010519

https://www.provantage.com/solarflare-communications-sfn8522-plus~7SOLA01N.htm

 

Flareon Ultra 10GBE I/O Adapter with LL Firmware Onload Licenses

Manufacturer Part#  SFN8522-ONLOAD
UPC Code: 0816191010618

https://www.provantage.com/solarflare-communications-sfn8522-onload~7SOLA01T.htm

 

First one without LL (low-latency) firmware costs about $200 while the rest would be over $900, is it realistic to to expect that LL firmware could be flashed on any non-Onload cards (without that factory-enabled goodness) for free or what?

 

I guess that maybe it's a good idea to get an answer from Xilinx directly?

 

https://www.xilinx.com/news/press/2019/xilinx-to-acquire-solarflare.html

[MarcelNL]

I have the question about the version out to Xilinx...it would surprise me if we can flash the firmware ourselves, I'll ask when I know the version of my card.

[MarcelNL]

Capabilities such as ultra-low latency, Onload kernel bypass, class leading clock synchronization accuracy providing MIFID II readiness, SolarSecure Filter Engine, SolarCapture and more can be enabled to run on any SFN8500 adapter on the network, making this the one Ethernet adapter to deploy across your data center or cloud infrastructure.

 

makes it sound as if any of the 8522 cards can have the LL features added later...likley at the cost of the software licence
 

[seeteeyou]

https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Ethernet/Trying-to-identify-a-card/td-p/1111859

Quote

These cards are hardware identical, differring only in what features are activated in the factory. To work out the different model number, you would need to check feature activations (e.g. by using "sfkey") From the serial number, however, I can see this is a -Plus variant card. Specifically: SFN8522-Plus XtremeScale 10GbE server I/O adapter with LL firmware, Onload license and PTP license

 

https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/互连/SFN8522-PLUS-onload-Usage-and-Test/td-p/1105955

Quote

1. To use Onload, you do need a card which has Onload AppFlex.  The "-Plus" variant of the adapter does include this, so no additional purchase is needed.

2. You can check "onload --version" to check Onload is installed and running; and you can use either "sfkey" (available in our utilities package) to check which adapters have Onload AppFlex, or "onload_mibdump hwport" to check which currently have Onload enabled.  (as some could have been manually disabled).

 

https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Ethernet/SFN8522-TCP-direct/td-p/1184781

Quote

To use TcpDirect you need a card which supports low-latency operation; which the "Onload" versions of cards include.  So this card should support TcpDirect.

(However, the 'Scaleout Onload' version available on base adapters does NOT include this.)

 

Solarflare SFS-OL Onload AppFlex License For SFN7000 And SFN8000 Series Adapters = $719.96
https://www.sabrepc.com/SFS-OL-Solarflare-S1202424

 

That's the whole point of getting another factory-enabled card on eBay instead of paying for a license.

[MarcelNL]

I saw the forum on xilinx, but the info is not conclusive for me

 

I was meanwhile, as the support team responds, reading up some in an attempt to catch up with the cutting edge tech that was developed a while ago but always evaded me...

https://access.redhat.com/sites/default/files/attachments/2012_solarflare_openonload_performance_brief_10.pdf

 

Got me wondering what sort of message rate we're looking at with audio only, and if the difference between PCM and DSD is large, somehow from the graph in that paper it seems to me that the solarflare card is low enough latency as is unless the bit size goes up and so does the message rate 

Warning; I only grasp the beginning of what I'm reading so pls be patient with me on this...

[cab33]

Great to use high quality wiring, but how was the quality of the PC board addressed?

[MarcelNL]

so far so good....the graphics card works using the riser card, I have output through the PF I2S card BUT the Xilinx card is not recognized .

 

The Solarflare card shows an amber LED on the card but I don't get network connection, which probably is not surprising as it is unlikely that Daphile takes into account that some geek sticks a network card designed for day-trading in a computer destined for audio.

 

Somehow I get the feeling SQ has improved with the graphic now in the 1x PCIe slot and fed by the PSU loom, nothing else changed...

 

edit: meanwhile I'm sure it improved SQ, cleaner background and slightly better dynamics, crisper more analog highs and yet again tighter bass :-)

 

 

[MarcelNL]

weird, somehow Daphile is showing two more temperatures, it used to show three and it now is showing 5, I suspect those might be from the Xilinx card , FSP port 0 and 1....

[Downtheline]

1 hour ago, MarcelNL said:

Xilinx card is not recognized .

What feeds the card? A zylix switch?

[MarcelNL]

9 hours ago, Downtheline said:

What feeds the card? A zylix switch?

yep, and the Finisar modules work great in the zyxel switch

[MarcelNL]

Is someone clear how the Solarflare card can get so hot when the specs say it uses 7.5 W or so?

 

specs:

Power • 8522 - 7.3W (typical), 8522M - 10W (typical)

Operating Range • 8522 Airflow: Min. 200 LFM at 55º C • 8522M Airflow: Min. 250 LFM at 55º C

 

Knowing it does not yet work I just took it out of the MB (also to learn that Daphile indeed somehow is showing two temperatures of the card) and it indeed was the 55 or so degrees Celsius hot that Daphile showed...that seems like a lot! 

Can this card work long term in a fanless build, do we need to stick a larger passive cooler on it?

[StreamFidelity]

16 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

Can this card work long term in a fanless build

 

I have the Solaflare 8522 card in continuous operation without a fan and there are no problems. The only condition: cover off. 😄

 

 

In the inlet I have a new cover designed by myself with sufficient ventilation capacity. If it works I will report. Ok, I'll also report if it doesn't work. 👍

[MarcelNL]

thanks, I was sortof expecting that....in my current PC the covers are off permanently (as usually with anything I build as it seems all projects are forever in transit to newer and better....) I was surprised to see 55'C for 7-10W , that heatsink must be very poor.

I'll see if I can find a bigger one, something passive for a GPU perhaps.

 

BTW: taking the solarflare out made it clear that power is king in computer audio too...SQ got better after pulling it, more analog high, better dynamics, tighter low end.

[MarcelNL]

BTW, can you switch off the LED on the RAM (or is it just a reflection?) I imagine sound gets better without it

[StreamFidelity]

14 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

BTW, can you switch off the LED on the RAM

 

Look in my DAC T+A SDV 3100 HV. What do you see? Red LEDs. And yet the sound is awesome.

 

What about our Solarflare 8522 card? Green LEDs. And yet the sound is awesome. 😄

 

[MarcelNL]

@StreamFidelity It's not the color, but the 'noise' they make, some are unavoidable. 

 

[StreamFidelity]

54 minutes ago, MarcelNL said:

It's not the color, but the 'noise' they make, some are unavoidable. 

 

Whether a green or red or purple LED. It's really not about that. 👍

 

What do you do with the LEDs in your solarflare card? Do you hear LED noises?

 

With the DOMINATOR® PLATINUM 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C10, I wanted high component quality, good cooling and, above all, low latencies. They are at a very low, extremely good 8.33 nanoseconds. The LEDs were free. 😄 But don't bother me.

[MarcelNL]

It's more of a conceptual thing, and the argument is not if the Solarflare card sounds great with a led (for now I haven't hear anything of the card as it does not yet work).

When building a 'full paranoia options on' system I for one plan to avoid known troublemakers, there are more and an odd LED here or there may not mean a great world of difference but they matter, same as solder joints...I know what they sound but can I avoid them? No, but I'll sure try to minimize them whenever I can, computer audio is less binary than some logic may want us to think ;-)

 

 

[StreamFidelity]

@MarcelNL I think that's where we find each other. Of course, I also try to avoid Christmas lights. When my M.2 SSD writes or reads data, an LED flashes on the motherboard. I cannot prevent that. But I can get the SSD activity close to 0% with most of it running in RAM. Or I boot straight from the RAM. But some things cannot be avoided. I prefer to buy RAM with LED if the rest is convincing than one without LED with other weak points.

[guiltyboxswapper]

On 1/28/2021 at 10:14 AM, seeteeyou said:

First one without LL (low-latency) firmware costs about $200 while the rest would be over $900, is it realistic to to expect that LL firmware could be flashed on any non-Onload cards (without that factory-enabled goodness) for free or what?

 

Well a quick look on ebay shows the plus verisons selling for $200 or less too (I got one for $140), which ofcourse includes the low-latency firmwares.

 

Having said that, I found "low latency mode" to destroy the SQ.   The profile clearly states its sacrificing CPU time and throughput for lowest latency which basically means a LOT more CPU interrupts. 

 

Much of the SQ benefits others have done have come from negating the effects of the network which cancels out any interrupts that come along;  some typically pre-caching the audio file before playback, so you don't get network interrupts from fetching the network stream whilst playing the audio stream.

 

I think many conflate low latency with low activity footprint here.  It's interesting that many do enjoy Windows LTSC when its not really a real-time kernel per say, but rather a good sounding one if you can get your drivers and processes to behave with low activity footprint.

 

The high throughput modes reduce CPU interrupt/time and therefore their footprint on the system when network activity is going ahead, hence in my case throughput profiles resulting in much better SQ using Onload. 

 

Do try for yourselves, its a pretty obvious improvement and installs v.easily. 

[guiltyboxswapper]

On 1/28/2021 at 9:24 PM, MarcelNL said:

The Solarflare card shows an amber LED on the card but I don't get network connection, which probably is not surprising as it is unlikely that Daphile takes into account that some geek sticks a network card designed for day-trading in a computer destined for audio.

 

Daphile not using a standard kernel?  Solarflare's sfc driver has been upstream for a while, so unless Daphile stripped the kernel bare (possible) it should have activated.

[MarcelNL]

1 hour ago, guiltyboxswapper said:

Daphile not using a standard kernel?  Solarflare's sfc driver has been upstream for a while, so unless Daphile stripped the kernel bare (possible) it should have activated.

the weird thing is that the Daphile Info tab shows the Solarflare with two temperatures( at least that is what I think), I'll tinker some more tonight or tomorrow, perhaps I need to switch off the onboard NIC in order to get this to work...

 

[Triplefun]

2 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

the weird thing is that the Daphile Info tab shows the Solarflare with two temperatures( at least that is what I think), I'll tinker some more tonight or tomorrow, perhaps I need to switch off the onboard NIC in order to get this to work...

 

Daphile builds on an optimised version of Gentoo Linux (5.4.87). Have you tried the beta which is more up to date loaded with the latest drivers. - see the Daphile FAQ for info. Have you raised the issue with Kipeta on the Daphile home page (www.daphile.com). See the bottom of the page for the 'contact' prompt.

[MarcelNL]

24 minutes ago, Triplefun said:

Daphile builds on an optimised version of Gentoo Linux (5.4.87). Have you tried the beta which is more up to date loaded with the latest drivers. - see the Daphile FAQ for info. Have you raised the issue with Kipeta on the Daphile home page (www.daphile.com). See the bottom of the page for the 'contact' prompt.

Usually I'm on the last beta, now I'm on the latest RT kernel after a bunch of repair updates for a week or two now (got tired of the rebooting as there were some serious stability issues over the last few weeks) and I assume (...tricky I know...) that the beta is not that much ahead. The RT is now stable AND Tidal works!

 

So far I have not seen any response to contacting Kipeta, I don't blame him as he must get TONS of crap sent to him each day...I will however try for this, thanks for reminding me of the option! (did make the suggestion to add an option to buffer to NMVE Optane a while ago, which reminds me to get some new Optane as mine is dead)