3 ms·

I think it wasn't just AMD winding down production of that SoC, but also that the Intel NICs being used on the APU2s (i210 and i211) were also getting hard to c

I think it wasn't just AMD winding down production of that SoC, but also that the Intel NICs being used on the APU2s (i210 and i211) were also getting hard to come by. Given how well designed and built those devices were, _especially_ at the price point Pascal sold them at, it's incredible to me that they're not everywhere. There really is no alternative, even at 2-4x the price point, and I'm surprised that AMD and Intel aren't trying to build more hardware to facilitate these sorts of devices, given how much pressure ARM has kind of put on lower power devices. I definitely hoarded a bunch of APU2s when the final run was announced. There's just little or nothing you can get your hands on that works as well as they do.

transpute 2y ago
Hopefully the re-industrialize [1] movement can inspire a new generation of board designers, learning from Pascal and research hardware like NetFPGA [2], which lead to commercial DPUs/SmartNICs. [1] https://www.reindustrialize.com/resources/attendees https://www.reindustrialize.com/resources/attendees [2] https://netfpga.org https://netfpga.org
- LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
  Why reinvent the wheels over and over again? Just port coreboot, or something similar to the likes of https://cwwk.net/ https://cwwk.net/ which have done the hardware part sufficiently. Or even better, organize to have some group/org paying them to port it to their HW. Or/and get https://bootlin.com https://bootlin.com / https://www.collabora.com https://www.collabora.com involved, if they are disinterested, have them coordinate the effort. They should know how to do that, instead of wasting time with reverse engineering all sorts of crap. Apply same due dilligence to the firmware running on the NIC/switch. Then continue with the 'optics' in the SFP+. They are 'smart' nowadays, and often run Linux, or some RTOS, too. See https://pon.wiki/xgs-pon/ont/bfw-solutions/was-110/#boot-log https://pon.wiki/xgs-pon/ont/bfw-solutions/was-110/#boot-log for just one example. Diz iz dä äyge of phybre. Äye vanna häff lain speed! Arr!
  - transpute 2y ago
    Do you know if CWWK x86 routers disable Intel BootGuard to allow coreboot? They have: capex: ~3X APU2 opex: higher TDP manufacturing: China instead of Taiwan PCB design: China instead of EU
    - LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
      No, I don't. But there is https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/coreboot/blob/24.12/Documentation/mainboard/topton/adl/x2f-n100.md https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/coreboot/blob/24.12/Documenta... which is basically the same shit with a different label. So it should be possible. CAPEX? Dunno what you are comparing these against? While I've never had an APU2, I considered them a looong time ago, with 4GB RAM, and 4 NICs (or 3x & 1 SFP+) and just thought are you drunk/on crack/crazy/stupid because of the price at the times. Which may have been because of greedy distributors/resellers in niche markets. Completing them with cases, PSUs, and the rest of all the little things which go into them. Those Changwan/CWWK/Topton/Whatever/lookalikes go for 200 to 300 Universal Credit Units with 32GB RAM, Case, PSU depending on where, when, and how you get them. Aliexpress sales/coupons, or directly sourced from CWWK. OPEX: Depends very much on the phase of the moon during design&assembly, the quality of their BIOS (Broken Initial Operations Setup), the later mitigations of those by correctly configured most minimal Linux/xBSD, if SFP+ 'optics' are used or not(adds 2 to 2.5Watt per port), borked kernelversions, 'smart' dynamic powermanagment not interfering with usage, multiplied by micromanagement of drivers, and so much more... … (Speaking of N100 here, without coreboot or similar OFC) Manufacturing: Why should I care? PCB design: See above. Also economies of scale, mass production vs.'artisanal snowflake'. Some more bait for you, since you're obviously interested, and I feel like it :-) https://www.servethehome.com/tag/cwwk/ https://www.servethehome.com/tag/cwwk/ https://www.servethehome.com/tag/topton/ https://www.servethehome.com/tag/topton/ https://www.servethehome.com/intel-core-i3-n305-and-n100-2-port-10g-2-port-2-5gbe-appliance/ https://www.servethehome.com/intel-core-i3-n305-and-n100-2-p... https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topton-nxxx-quad-nic-router.39685/ https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topto... (have fun ingesting 138 pages with comments and following up the links therein) Also reddit #Alder Lake #N100 in r/homelab/minilab/MiniPCs/networking/HomeNetworking/HomeServer/SelfHosted/PFSENSE/whateverelse* Edit: Also, because I felt like it: https://yanling-store.en.made-in-china.com/product/zXPETvVubORe/China-Yanling-New-Fanless-Computer-Nano-N18-Intel-Core-I5-8250u-Support-6-Gigabit-LAN-2-DDR4-Mini-PC-for-Linux.html https://yanling-store.en.made-in-china.com/product/zXPETvVub... ( https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1101257843 https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1101257843 ) ( https://www.ylipc.com/ https://www.ylipc.com/ ) vs. https://eu.protectli.com/product/fw6d/ https://eu.protectli.com/product/fw6d/ Scroll down -> Specifications -> Bios: BIOS AMI® or coreboot Yawn... … Where was I... …? Never mind... … ( https://www.iwillminipc.com https://www.iwillminipc.com https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.the-new-header_fy23_pc_search_bar.keydown__Enter&tab=all&SearchText=Alder+Lake+N100 https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?spm=a2700.galleryofferl... https://liliputing.com/this-small-fanless-pc-is-built-for-networking-with-four-10-gbe-and-five-2-5-gb-ethernet-ports/ https://liliputing.com/this-small-fanless-pc-is-built-for-ne... https://www.qotom.net/product/RouterPC_Q20331G9S10.html https://www.qotom.net/product/RouterPC_Q20331G9S10.html Get the gist? ... … (to be continued by some other nerdsniped entity) )

transpute 2y ago

Hopefully the re-industrialize [1] movement can inspire a new generation of board designers, learning from Pascal and research hardware like NetFPGA [2], which lead to commercial DPUs/SmartNICs. [1] https://www.reindustrialize.com/resources/attendees https://www.reindustrialize.com/resources/attendees [2] https://netfpga.org https://netfpga.org

LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
Why reinvent the wheels over and over again? Just port coreboot, or something similar to the likes of https://cwwk.net/ https://cwwk.net/ which have done the hardware part sufficiently. Or even better, organize to have some group/org paying them to port it to their HW. Or/and get https://bootlin.com https://bootlin.com / https://www.collabora.com https://www.collabora.com involved, if they are disinterested, have them coordinate the effort. They should know how to do that, instead of wasting time with reverse engineering all sorts of crap. Apply same due dilligence to the firmware running on the NIC/switch. Then continue with the 'optics' in the SFP+. They are 'smart' nowadays, and often run Linux, or some RTOS, too. See https://pon.wiki/xgs-pon/ont/bfw-solutions/was-110/#boot-log https://pon.wiki/xgs-pon/ont/bfw-solutions/was-110/#boot-log for just one example. Diz iz dä äyge of phybre. Äye vanna häff lain speed! Arr!
- transpute 2y ago
  Do you know if CWWK x86 routers disable Intel BootGuard to allow coreboot? They have: capex: ~3X APU2 opex: higher TDP manufacturing: China instead of Taiwan PCB design: China instead of EU
  - LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
    No, I don't. But there is https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/coreboot/blob/24.12/Documentation/mainboard/topton/adl/x2f-n100.md https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/coreboot/blob/24.12/Documenta... which is basically the same shit with a different label. So it should be possible. CAPEX? Dunno what you are comparing these against? While I've never had an APU2, I considered them a looong time ago, with 4GB RAM, and 4 NICs (or 3x & 1 SFP+) and just thought are you drunk/on crack/crazy/stupid because of the price at the times. Which may have been because of greedy distributors/resellers in niche markets. Completing them with cases, PSUs, and the rest of all the little things which go into them. Those Changwan/CWWK/Topton/Whatever/lookalikes go for 200 to 300 Universal Credit Units with 32GB RAM, Case, PSU depending on where, when, and how you get them. Aliexpress sales/coupons, or directly sourced from CWWK. OPEX: Depends very much on the phase of the moon during design&assembly, the quality of their BIOS (Broken Initial Operations Setup), the later mitigations of those by correctly configured most minimal Linux/xBSD, if SFP+ 'optics' are used or not(adds 2 to 2.5Watt per port), borked kernelversions, 'smart' dynamic powermanagment not interfering with usage, multiplied by micromanagement of drivers, and so much more... … (Speaking of N100 here, without coreboot or similar OFC) Manufacturing: Why should I care? PCB design: See above. Also economies of scale, mass production vs.'artisanal snowflake'. Some more bait for you, since you're obviously interested, and I feel like it :-) https://www.servethehome.com/tag/cwwk/ https://www.servethehome.com/tag/cwwk/ https://www.servethehome.com/tag/topton/ https://www.servethehome.com/tag/topton/ https://www.servethehome.com/intel-core-i3-n305-and-n100-2-port-10g-2-port-2-5gbe-appliance/ https://www.servethehome.com/intel-core-i3-n305-and-n100-2-p... https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topton-nxxx-quad-nic-router.39685/ https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/cwwk-topto... (have fun ingesting 138 pages with comments and following up the links therein) Also reddit #Alder Lake #N100 in r/homelab/minilab/MiniPCs/networking/HomeNetworking/HomeServer/SelfHosted/PFSENSE/whateverelse* Edit: Also, because I felt like it: https://yanling-store.en.made-in-china.com/product/zXPETvVubORe/China-Yanling-New-Fanless-Computer-Nano-N18-Intel-Core-I5-8250u-Support-6-Gigabit-LAN-2-DDR4-Mini-PC-for-Linux.html https://yanling-store.en.made-in-china.com/product/zXPETvVub... ( https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1101257843 https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1101257843 ) ( https://www.ylipc.com/ https://www.ylipc.com/ ) vs. https://eu.protectli.com/product/fw6d/ https://eu.protectli.com/product/fw6d/ Scroll down -> Specifications -> Bios: BIOS AMI® or coreboot Yawn... … Where was I... …? Never mind... … ( https://www.iwillminipc.com https://www.iwillminipc.com https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.the-new-header_fy23_pc_search_bar.keydown__Enter&tab=all&SearchText=Alder+Lake+N100 https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?spm=a2700.galleryofferl... https://liliputing.com/this-small-fanless-pc-is-built-for-networking-with-four-10-gbe-and-five-2-5-gb-ethernet-ports/ https://liliputing.com/this-small-fanless-pc-is-built-for-ne... https://www.qotom.net/product/RouterPC_Q20331G9S10.html https://www.qotom.net/product/RouterPC_Q20331G9S10.html Get the gist? ... … (to be continued by some other nerdsniped entity) )