No, the half-bridge is less capable for various functions, but happens to have hardware PPPoE offload which makes it faster for this specific function but not for others

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Ballas 6 minutes ago | parent [-]

Could you go into more detail - how is the half-bridge less capable? (I'm not familiar with ether device, but the ultimate solution seems like a sub-optimal solution to me?)

	▲	p_l a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		Essentially, it's a case of smaller device with less powerful CPU and less powerful routing offloads, but which happens to have a hardware offload for the specific use case that they needed offloading - PPPoE. As the article itself mentions, hardware PPPoE is often present on lower shelf chips, but missing from higher end chips that in turn have more switching/routing capabilities.