Q: now all the material costs are rising, and how to choose a cost-effective l2+ managed industrial ethernet switch?
A: in the background of the electronic material rise in 2026, the trend of industry differentiation is clear: the AI-related industries can still afford a certain cost increase, but in other industries such as industrial communication, it is really sensitive to the costs, some low-priced products unlike the premium Moxa Switch 8 Port,have been directly suspended production due to a cost imbalance.
In this case, for the most popular switch, 8 port L2+ managed industrial Ethernet switch , the cost pressure is particularly high: the benchmark manufacturer in the industry, Moxa Switch 8 Port is widely used, will also be significantly affected by the high cost increase. If the material price increases too quickly , it is hard to accept by the end users . If there is no precise BOM control during the research and development stage, the final product cost will be very high, and the product will lose its market competitiveness directly.
In response to the hard situation of this industry, Rayin technology based on its years of self-developed and mass-produced experience in industrial switches, has formulated a cost-effective L2 + industrial switch solution to replace the costly Moxa Switch 8 Port. Here we will introduce our solution as below.
1. Managed Industrial Ethernet Switch：the selection of DDR
The chip options for 8 port managed industrial switchseem to be quite diverse, but most of the traditional solutions have limitations in their hardware design. For example, the Microchip VSC7428 is a classic old system, which only supports DDR2 memory, which is unable to be compatible with subsequent memory such as DDR3/DDR4. In 2026, DDR2 has came to the end of the product life cycle, it is short of production capacity, hard to control delivery times, continuously increasing price,and lots of original factories ceased production and withdrawn from the market.
This defect leads to two problems: Firstly, the procurement of DDR2 materials is very difficult, and mass production is easy to face the risk of supply disruptions; Secondly, the BOM cost keeps rising along with the memory prices increase, and the product cost is completely uncontrollable, ultimately losing its market competitiveness.
Lots of engineers may choose to replace by the Realtek RTL838X series, solving the memory generation compatibility problem because the hardware supports the DDR3. However, However, this series still has design limitations: The DDR interface hardware is fixed at an 8-bit (x8) width and does not support 16-bit (x16) memory modules. This causes memory selection to be restricted: the largest and most cost-effective is almost all 16 particles and 8 ddr3 not only the optional number and the narrow selection of the supplier, but the bulk purchase price of the same capacity is higher than the 16 particles, and still not completely solve the problem of high memory cost and poor supply flexibility.
At present, the mainstream product in the DDR3 market are almost all 16-bit memory chips. 8-bit DDR3 not only has fewer selectable product codes, but also has a higher price than 16-bit memory chips under the same capacity. Therefore, the problems of high memory costs is still not solved.
However, Rayin technology’s self-develped 8 port l2 + managed industrial switch solved the problem from the hardware design level: the DDR interface both supports 16 DDR3 and DDR4, without the hardware limitation of the generation and the width. At the same time, considerring the cost saving for customers, we have specially made a two-version design: launched two hardware versions of DDR3 and DDR4, customers can make flexible choices based on their needs.
2. Managed Industrial Ethernet Switch：MLCC design ideas
Since the MLCC shortage began in May 2026, the purchase of the high capacity MLCC has entered the "grab" state: the common material delivery period is prolonged and the price is jumping continuously.
Before, because of the low unit price of the capacitor, many hardware engineers were not specially considered for supply chain compatibility, and often only designed a single package of soldering plates. Once we encounter the current situation where there is a complete shortage , the shortage of a single part number will directly halt production and the temporary replacement will be reproven, the PCB, the delivery schedule and the cost are not controlled.
Rayin technology has a multi-packaging compatible redundant design: the most commonly used 10μF/6.3V capacitance, which is compatible with 0402, 0603, 0805 three kinds of packaging, hardware and welder's technology, which is fully packaged and verified in advance. Choose the one with available stock and the one with a high cost-performance ratio. There is no need to modify the board or conduct additional material replacement certification. This will completely avoid the risk of production halt due to the shortage of a single material type.
3. the advantages of Rayin Technology
What we understood good design or a managed industrial Ethernet switch is never merely adding expensive components to the parameter list or creating fancy specifications. Instead, from the first step of research and selection, we design each managed industrial switch from the perspective of customers' mass production and long-term use: when choosing chips, we not only consider performance parameters but also consider the supply risks of the components, actively avoiding materials shortage or price increases; when drawing PCBs, we not only consider signal integrity but also provide multi-packaging compatibility designs for common materials like high-capacity MLCCs. By this way, during mass production, we won't be bottlenecked by a single material shortage.
4.FAQ
Q1: Nowadays European/US brand switches,such as the Moxa Switch 8 Port, have very big price hikes. What can we do?
A: you should switch to reliable OEM/ODM manufacturers. Quality Asian manufacturers, such as Rayin Technology, can offer high performance managed industrial Ethernet switch with up to 40% cost savings.
Q2: Hardware costs is increasing. How can we lower project expenses?
A: You can downgrade from L3 to L2+ managed industrial Ethernet switch. Don't pay for dynamic routing if you don't need it. L2+ switches provide Static Routing function.
