In a recent article, we covered the ROC-RK3588-RT SBC, one of its main features was its three ethernet ports: one 2.5GbE and the other two standard ethernet ports. This setup made this board ideal for routers and firewalls. To enhance its capabilities, Firefly recently launched the EXT-2.5GE-RK3588-RT, a 2.5GbE Ethernet Expansion Board, which adds four more 2.5GbE ports to the ROC-RK3588-RT Rockchip RK3588 SBC.
We’ve previously covered many SBCs, mini PCs, and motherboards from Firefly, such as their Rockchip RK3588 SBCs with 32GB RAM, the Firefly AIO-1684XQ motherboard, and the Firefly Station P3D mini PC. Feel free to check them out if you’re interested.
While searching, I found limited documentation, but upon closer inspection, I discovered that the board uses the RTL8125BG IC for Ethernet control and the PI6C557-05 IC as a spectrum clock generator. There is also some kind of PMIC on the board recognizable by the big inductor, but the actual part number of the IC is not recognizable from the image.
The Realtek RTL8125BG is an Ethernet controller that supports up to 2.5Gbps connectivity with advanced power management features, including support for remote wake-up and power-saving protocols, while the PI6C557-05 is a PCI Express 2.0 and Ethernet-compliant clock generator designed to reduce EMI in PCs and embedded systems. It offers four differential outputs with a configurable spread spectrum and operates on a 25MHz input to produce 100MHz and 200MHz frequencies.
The 60-pin BTB connector on the bottom of the PCB with two 4-lane PCIe 3.0 interfaces is there to link the extension board to the ROC-RK3588-RT SBC and bring the total number of Ethernet ports to seven with five 2.5GbE and two GbE RJ45 jacks.
The EXT-2.5GE-RK3588-RT Ethernet Expansion board is available for $55.00 on the Firefly store and can also be found on AliExpress, priced at $76.07.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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It’s indeed a nice improvement but they could have taken this opportunity to try to solve the inadequate ports disposition: while HDMI on the front is really inconvenient, for a router the lack of accessible console on the side of the cables is annoying as well, especially when placed in a rack, and they could probably have placed a small USB port that would fit the hole on top of the 3.5 jack to give a console access.