RISC-V port could be an idea?

[Schroinx]

With all the move towards European tech independence, an RISC-V router with opnsense could be a place to start. I have searched the English forums but no hits.

There are both smaller cards with RISC-V and 2 gbit ports, but also bigger P550-based, which with a 10gb nic could likely reach higher speeds as well. While the P550 is not European it can be used until there are European solutions.

Are opnsense only for firewall duty, or can it also be used for wireless, or do opnsennse users use something else like openWRT for that duty?

https://wiki.freebsd.org/riscv

https://www.elektormagazine.com/articles/the-risc-v-architecture-16-boards-mcus

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Are opnsense only for firewall duty, or can it also be used for wireless, or do opnsennse users use something else like openWRT for that duty?

FreeBSD is notoriously behind in features for wireless infrastructure mode so the general recommendation is not to try to turn OPNsense into an access point. This is unlikely to change unless someone throws money at the problem. There is no capacity (developers) and the FreeBSD foundation has more important areas to sponsor.

That being said there is Mikrotik located in Latvia. I like their products.

[Schroinx]

@PatricMH

Thx. I'll give them a look.

That still leaves the main question.

[Greg_E]

I have a few Mikrotik devices, just switches though, pretty good stuff and cheaper than a lot of other products. I have a small 10gbe switch in my production system, and an even larger 10gbe switch in my lab. I do think the larger switch might be slightly faster, but it also might be a difference in software loaded, something I need to update for the small switch. CRS309-1g-8s+ and CRS326-24s+2q+ are the two that I use.

Never used their wireless yet, but I may go through and do an upgrade at home, would be nice to have better signal in the back yard, so an external unit might be nice.

[passeri]

I have a couple of Mikrotik CRS304 10GB switches and a CRS310 2.5GB, all handling the backbone under my Dec697 primary firewall. I also use a few of their APs for various purposes. They do not have the most advanced radios, currently on WiFi 6 rather than WiFi 7 for example, but then a lot of devices are still barely making it to WiFi6 while a lot of traffic does not need the speed anyway. Their advantages for me are low cost and incredibly flexible setup with ROS, but with a steep learning curve. Opnsense GUI is far easier and documentation far superior. These are important advantages for making sure you stay secure, the primary aim at the edge. Another reason Mikrotik will never replace Opnsense as my primary firewall is that I try to avoid common-mode failure. The switches and radios (indoor and outdoor) are well worth investigation though, if you are OK with ROS.

[millerwissen]

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[Schroinx]

FreeBSD has been ported to RISC-V. I don't know if Intels NICs only have BSD drivers for R5?

As of yet, most of the hardware available is US or China, thou its also rumored that there are activities in EU like Sipearl, Kalray, Corbus and others are working in the same segment, incl on automotive. There is also some EU Horizon projects, that aim to develop EU hardware from the edge to HPC. Barcelona SuperComputing Department is also a participant.

US board. There are also smaller boards with 2 NIs or more, but don't know the compute performance needed to run the router & OS compared to their performance. Some of them could make for cheap low end routers for 1-2,5g.

https://www.electronics-lab.com/milk-v-titan-brings-high-performance-risc-v-to-the-mini-itx-motherboard/

https://wccftech.com/european-chip-startup-pulls-off-working-risc-v-solution-on-the-intel-3-node/

https://www.freebsd.org/where/

[Schroinx]

RISC-V cores should be cheaper than Arm & x86 over time, as there are no royalties to pay for the ISA, and the ISA also allows the software stack to not be tied to a specific vendor like Arm or AMD, but can be used freely on any RISC-V CPU that fulfils the spec. Thu thats also a consideration, as the RV23 spec has only been firmed now, so the chips are mostly not fully RVA23 compliant. But the Titan board above is getting there in terms of performance. 

R5 reportedly has reached 30% marketshare, mostly likely in MCUs. There are movement to R5 in the higher end, incl in India & China, as they are de-US-ing their tech supply and tech dependency. Where FOSS & open standards makes a lot of sense. Also for interoperability.

So is EU working on, incl the Higher-project which aims for RISC-V chips from the edge to server/cloud.
There is also the Tristan & Isolde focussing on EU embedded RISC-V cpus and the EU-processor project. 

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4sw44vxmeqjd3idlzyuuenpy

There is a RISC-V summit in Bologna in June I think. Could be a place to network & talk to other EUropeans in the industry.
If Opnsense team works with another EU company or 2 about an EU proejct, its likely to get funded, and some of the project paid to port it.

For the masses, if we can run Opnsense on a small RISC-V for 1, 2,5, 5, 10g speeds, setup network services like vlans, and optionally another like one of the ad-removal DNS services...

[Schroinx]

More info here on the EUropean initiatives.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/01/26/3225340/0/en/The-OpenHW-Foundation-unveils-the-first-industry-ready-RISC-V-ecosystem-to-advance-European-digital-sovereignty.html