Current status of ARM

freakalad

Hi folks,

I know that this has been asked before, but not really visited in earnest in a while now, other than "would be nice".

Does anyone know the current state of development is for ARM?
I do see that FreeBSD has made progress re dev in the ARM space (partly spurred on by the Raspberry Pi/RasPi); I'm getting the feeling this project could be left in the dust.

I just came across this, and seems an excellent alternative to the (aging & costly) ALIX boxes I've been using up to now.
I've also been tracking the development of several other FLOSS boards that are due to arrive at some point in the not-too-distant future, and I'd hate to see this project being left in the dust.

jimp

There is no support. The Pi is not optimal for a firewall device anyhow. There have been several threads, and even if FreeBSD supports the Pi, it's suitability as a firewall doesn't change.

ARM support may change in the future, but it really depends on what platforms show up that are affordable and viable for a firewall.
Same for MIPS.

djzort

That new platform looks ideal, i just found it myself and came here looking for a status.

jimp

"looks" being the key word. Lots of pretty pictures and words but no info on pricing or much of substance there.

If it actually shows up, and it's actually affordable (<$500), perhaps, but Atom/i3 systems are cheap these days, it would have to be an extremely inexpensive ARM device to make any kind of sense.

stan-qaz

More details on the Utilite box: http://www.zdnet.com/meet-utilite-new-raspberry-pi-rival-7000018083/

Lots of RAM, decent processor and dual gig ports WiFi n all at the $100 US price-point.

kejianshi

"ARM is officially a Tier 2 architecture, as the FreeBSD project does not provide official releases or pre-built packages for this platform due to it primarily targeting the embedded arena. However, FreeBSD/ARM is being actively developed and maintained, is well supported, and provides an excellent framework for building ARM-based systems."

So says the FreeBSD gods…

I read this, taken as a whole, as not terribly well supported.

dhatz

On a related topic of pfSense on MIPS, I noticed this post in the freebsd-net mailing list:

Thanks to the hard work by FreeBSD's Cavium developers and the community we now have support for the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite boxes in FreeBSD-CURRENT and they're working quite well. Since the devs are bit busy with other projects I though I'd put up an open request of making the octe driver ALTQ aware. This would be a very nice addition to a cheap FreeBSD firewall/gateway that performs well overall. Unfortunately I'm not able to do it myself due to lack of knowledge of the inner workings but it seems quite easy looking at the old patch archive over here:
http://people.freebsd.org/~mlaier/ALTQ_driver/
If needed I can on the other hand test patches.

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-net/2013-July/036066.html

Relevant links:
https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/mips/Octeon
http://www.ubnt.com/edgemax
http://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/edgemax/EdgeRouter_Lite_DS.pdf

wallabybob

There is more on the utilite at http://linuxgizmos.com/compact-mini-pc-arm-linux-android-freescale-i-mx6/

jimp

Both of the other links for the Utilite are full of hope/promise and then vague ideas about when it will actually ship. Wake me when the thing actually ships at the claimed price point…

Sabrewarrior

What about routers themselves? There are some new ARM products out there which are already sub $100 with really nice specs. There are also some MIPS ones but they usually have less flash.

WZR-1750DHP:
Chipset: Broadcom BCM4708@800MHz
RAM: 512 MB
Flash: 128 MB
Price: $147.99

WZR-600DHP2:
Chipset: Broadcom BCM4707@800MHz
RAM: 256 MB
Flash: 128 MB
Price: $97.99

RT-AC56U
Chipset: Broadcom BCM4708A0@1000 MHz
RAM: 256 MB
Flash: 128 MB
Price: $159.99

http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.11-Wireless-LAN-Solutions/BCM4707-4708-4709
"At the center of the device is a high-performance 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core"

As for MIPS some of the more powerful ones out there are:
RT-AC66R
Chipset: Broadcom BCM4706@600
RAM: 256 MB
Flash: 128 MB
Price: $149.99

WZR-600DHP
Chipset: Atheros AR7161@680
RAM: 128
Flash: 32
Price: $69.99
With that much flash though would need some serious tinkering. Not sure if anything from the previous project on Routerstation Pro would be relevant.

http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.11-Wireless-LAN-Solutions/BCM4706
"BCM4706 integrates a powerful 600 MHz MIPS32"

Build times can't be that bad with those specs and the ability to use a USB or 2.

PS. I have a WZR-600DHP that I can spend some time on if I had an idea of where to start.

stephenw10

Have you looked at ZRouter? http://zrouter.org/
It looked like a very promising project for some time but now seems a little stale. Could just be my impression.

Steve

robi

I have a GuruPlug laying around. It's also an ARM box, with two gigabit ports, WiFi, eSata, etc:

CPU 	1.2 GHz ARM Marvell Kirkwood 6281 (ARM9E)
Memory 	512MB SDRAM
Storage	512MB NAND
MicroSD Slot
Connectivity 	USB 2.0, 2 x Gigabit Ethernet, JTAG (serial console with adapter), Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Dimensions 	95 x 65 x 48.5 (mm)

Could also be a good candidate.

ZGruk

The utilite box is now available for order by the general public
http://utilite-computer.com/web/order-utilite-direct
A bit of a lead time, but apparently it is actually coming.

grdk

For not much more than the high-end Utilite, you can get a dual core Atom mITX box that has actual PCIe NICs (albeit RealTek).

Does the Utilite have PCIe NICs? Or is it off of USB 2.0 like the Pi? I have a few Pis laying around for tinkering, such as a BitTorrent Sync dongle and a Transmission/BT dongle… but I can't imagine using one as a Firewall/IDF/IPS.

stephenw10

Looks like they're not USB connected:

Steve

stan-qaz

I'm not very impressed by this but it is a tiny computer with an Intel processor that you might be able to get pfSense running on instead of waiting on an ARM port.

http://linuxgizmos.com/intel-launches-arduino-compatible-galileo-board/

http://www.intel.com/support/galileo/index.htm

kejianshi

Looks like a good low power board for people who value power efficiency over out-right performance.

Although this would be a no-go for me: Processor — Intel Quark X1000 SoC @ 400MHz

ayah

@stan-qaz:

I'm not very impressed by this but it is a tiny computer with an Intel processor that you might be able to get pfSense running on instead of waiting on an ARM port.

http://linuxgizmos.com/intel-launches-arduino-compatible-galileo-board/

http://www.intel.com/support/galileo/index.htm

If it's combatting the arduino, it's not going to be very powerful. comparable to the ARM m# series IP.
in comparison, routers are usually based on A# series IP