A network card with its own firmware and compute generally uses a network processor[1], right? A widget that is optimized at the silicon level to put fairly specific pegs into fairly a specific holes?
The RP PIO is not a network processor, and doesn't have that kind of optimization. It is a blank slate that is devoid of intended purpose. It can be used to accomplish lots of different and very arbitrary things.
The RP PIO is not a network processor, and doesn't have that kind of optimization. It is a blank slate that is devoid of intended purpose. It can be used to accomplish lots of different and very arbitrary things.
They seem like very different things to me.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_processor