Re: Dead ports [Re: config(5) break down]

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost>]

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 04:11:08PM -0500, David Young wrote:
> 
> I guess that it depends on your application whether these boards are
> "useful" or not, but these places sell inexpensive boards that have
> more-or-less open architecture/documentation:
> 
> www.embeddedarm.com
> www.openplug.org
> www.routerboard.com
> www.ubnt.com
> 
> In NetBSD, we have support for only a few of the boards at those links.
> I don't think that it's because TNF does not buy developers the boards.

From my point of view, they're so slow or poor in modern fast network
interfaces as to not be worth any major porting effort.  They're toys.
And as a toy, a Soekris is sure easier to play with!

Have a look at
http://www.rmicorp.com/assets/docs/2070SG_XLR_XLS_Product_Selection_Guide_2008-12-16.pdf
specifically at the bottom few rows on the "XLS" chart.  You're looking at
parts that have 3 or 4 Gig-E interfaces, tons of useful hardware offload,
and are, by published reports, way down in the sub-$50 range.  You can
get very similar stuff from Cavium.

If someone wants to start making cheap boards out of those... this developer,
at least, would be interested.  But the existing eval boards are anything
but cheap.

Thor