Soekris Net6801-70: Intel C2758
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We've been using soekris hardware for quite a few years with pfsense. Recently we started using the supermicro boxes with the c2758. Lots of throughput at a decent price. Can't wait for pfsense to get updated to take full advantage of the hardware.
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Just yesterday I was testing the IPSec AES-GCM (w/AES-NI acceleration) support in 2.2 snapshots, getting just under 200Mbps from home (where I have a 2-core 2358-based system) to work (a C2758).
Test was basically 'curl' from a remote web server.
jims-mini:~ jim$ curl -O 172.21.0.95:data/p2r.tgz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 123M 100 123M 0 0 24.8M 0 0:00:04 0:00:04 –:--:-- 24.8M
jims-mini:~ jim$ curl -O 172.21.0.95:data/p2r.tgz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 123M 100 123M 0 0 25.2M 0 0:00:04 0:00:04 --:--:-- 25.3M
jims-mini:~ jim$ curl -O 172.21.0.95:data/p2r.tgz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 123M 100 123M 0 0 23.2M 0 0:00:05 0:00:05 --:--:-- 23.2M
jims-mini:~ jim$ curl -O 172.21.0.95:data/p2r.tgz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 123M 100 123M 0 0 21.4M 0 0:00:05 0:00:05 --:--:-- 22.0M
jims-mini:~ jim$ curl -O 172.21.0.95:data/p2r.tgz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 123M 100 123M 0 0 25.3M 0 0:00:04 0:00:04 --:--:-- 25.3M
jims-mini:~ jim$ curl -O 172.21.0.95:data/p2r.tgz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 123M 100 123M 0 0 19.6M 0 0:00:06 0:00:06 --:--:-- 22.8M
jims-mini:~ jim$ curl -O 172.21.0.95:data/p2r.tgz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 123M 100 123M 0 0 23.8M 0 0:00:05 0:00:05 --:--:-- 26.2MI would have gotten more (both boxes had plenty of CPU left, and the path is 1Gbps/1Gbps) but there is still a single FW-7541 on the old redundant 100Mbps hand-offs in the way, and 200Mbps is about all it will do.
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@gonzopancho:
It's going to be expensive because the C2758 CPU itself is more than $200/each in bulk.
The C2758 (8 core @ 2.4GHz) is $208 "customer price", not a "bulk" price.
The C2358 (2 core @ 1.7GHz) is $60 "consumer price".
Customer price in ARK is for direct Intel customers, typically with a 1000 piece minimum. Since these are embedded CPUs it's not really relevant though since you can't buy one separately. I don't see the point of the 4-core parts. Contrary to what you might think from some of my posts, I genuinely am interested in the 2-core model, I just wish they had made a 2.4GHz version.
It's quite likely that every C2xxx SoC is the same die, and that the results of the binning process have cores or QAT disabled. Given this, it is likely that Intel have no reason to "make" a 2.4GHz C23xx product.
Anyway, this new board is still a Soekris product and I stand by what I said about that.
If you're saying, "Soekris is expensive", you'll not hear much argument from me. My issue with Soekris is that there isn't any margin in them, and that's why we've never sold them.
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@gonzopancho:
Anyway, this new board is still a Soekris product and I stand by what I said about that.
If you're saying, "Soekris is expensive", you'll not hear much argument from me. My issue with Soekris is that there isn't any margin in them, and that's why we've never sold them.
Price is part of it, yes. The other part is that they tend to release half-baked products and never fix the issues. I am really not happy with the 6501 I bought a couple years back. That's why this time around I just went with SuperMicro. The C2758 board I got from them will get nothing but positive reviews from me (one minor glitch, the board can't control the speed of 3-pin fans).
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What Soekris does is to produce professional embedded router & firewall hardware for network professionals. Now we all know, embedded hardware is much more expensive then every other. What really hearts is the issue with the half-baked products. They produce for network professionals, but they don't produce her boards for 19" rackmount. Blinking lights in front, an ports in back? Power next to reset and USB? That's stuff for Homer-entertainment. Not even f***ing crap cheep professional office switches look like this. This issues should get fixed, an in my eyes, net6801look like it. So it realy let me hope.
by the way, the openvox ipc100 is quite similar to the Soekris net6501-70. If you like to compare prices, you should compare this two, an not eggs with chicken. ;D
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OK, I see you, and raise you.
http://store.netgate.com/Production-Boards-C209.aspx
Not shown, an 8 core C2758 board with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash, on-board, an a 1U case for same (front-facing ports, etc.)
designed by the same guys who make pfSense.
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@gonzopancho:
OK, I see you, and raise you.
http://store.netgate.com/Production-Boards-C209.aspx
Not shown, an 8 core C2758 board with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash, on-board, an a 1U case for same (front-facing ports, etc.)
designed by the same guys who make pfSense.
Could you possibly add NIC chipsets to those pages? Also, I think you've got the wrong picture for the 2440.
Any chance of whipping up a C2758 board with 10Gbe ports? I saw the RCC development kit but I was thinking more along the lines of something that wasn't 3-4" high (with 10Gbe on board I don't need the expansion slot).
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@gonzopancho:
OK, I see you, and raise you.
http://store.netgate.com/Production-Boards-C209.aspx
Not shown, an 8 core C2758 board with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash, on-board, an a 1U case for same (front-facing ports, etc.)
designed by the same guys who make pfSense.
Could you possibly add NIC chipsets to those pages? Also, I think you've got the wrong picture for the 2440.
Any chance of whipping up a C2758 board with 10Gbe ports? I saw the RCC development kit but I was thinking more along the lines of something that wasn't 3-4" high (with 10Gbe on board I don't need the expansion slot).
Yes, the pic doesn't match.
NICs are i354 for the "first" four ports, and i211 for #5 and #6.
As you state, RCC has dual-port 10G, but I'm only thinking of it for rack mount 1U, and not until mid-year next.
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@gonzopancho:
@gonzopancho:
OK, I see you, and raise you.
http://store.netgate.com/Production-Boards-C209.aspx
Not shown, an 8 core C2758 board with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash, on-board, an a 1U case for same (front-facing ports, etc.)
designed by the same guys who make pfSense.
Could you possibly add NIC chipsets to those pages? Also, I think you've got the wrong picture for the 2440.
Any chance of whipping up a C2758 board with 10Gbe ports? I saw the RCC development kit but I was thinking more along the lines of something that wasn't 3-4" high (with 10Gbe on board I don't need the expansion slot).
Yes, the pic doesn't match.
NICs are i354 for the "first" four ports, and i211 for #5 and #6.
As you state, RCC has dual-port 10G, but I'm only thinking of it for rack mount 1U, and not until mid-year next.
I would be all over it if you could cram two of those in a short-depth 1U chassis and make it so that one was easily removable (front loading tray, perhaps) without needing to power off the other system and remove the entire thing from the rack.
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@gonzopancho:
OK, I see you, and raise you.
http://store.netgate.com/Production-Boards-C209.aspx
Not shown, an 8 core C2758 board with 8GB RAM and 64GB flash, on-board, an a 1U case for same (front-facing ports, etc.)
designed by the same guys who make pfSense.
Could you possibly add NIC chipsets to those pages? Also, I think you've got the wrong picture for the 2440.
Any chance of whipping up a C2758 board with 10Gbe ports? I saw the RCC development kit but I was thinking more along the lines of something that wasn't 3-4" high (with 10Gbe on board I don't need the expansion slot).
We designed the fan-sink for the 8 core RCC-VE to also work with the RCC board. Just so it could fit in an enclosure that isn't 4" high. :-)
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Soekris has canceled the net6801.
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@jwt:
Soekris has canceled the net6801.
Really sad to hear about! A C2x58 appliance with the ability to upgrade to 8/12 GB LAN Ports was also
really nice to see in the world wide assortment to run pfSense on. -
@BlueKobold:
@jwt:
Soekris has canceled the net6801.
Really sad to hear about! A C2x58 appliance with the ability to upgrade to 8/12 GB LAN Ports was also
really nice to see in the world wide assortment to run pfSense on.We already have an option with up to 8 NICs, with more coming later.
I was surprised to hear it was cancelled, though it's been delayed quite some time (page on their site listed Winter 2014 as release date, later Q4 2015). My favorite post from their mailing list's thread.
Seems this is the beginning of the end for Soekris. Their existing hardware lines haven't been price competitive in quite a while. The 6501 is quirky, just search a bit on here with the issues people have had getting things running. Mine collects dust most of the time, and every time I try to get something running on it I'm left wondering why I bothered. Prior to the 65xx line, I always had great experiences with their hardware. Their 45xx models were the first embedded x86 machines I really dug into, starting over 13 years ago now. I believe I have one of every model they've made to date, though haven't bought any or used them in production in many years. I'll remember them fondly though.
I'm not sure why anyone would buy any of the Soekris hardware at this point, unless you really need a PCI-e slot in a low power system. The net55xx is obsolete, and there are a lot of significantly cheaper, better options than the net65xx. The RCC-VE 2440 is much faster, has AES-NI and QuickAssist, with at least twice as much RAM, onboard eMMC storage where none of the net* options include any storage, and it's significantly cheaper than a 6501. You can almost buy two 2440s with case and power supply for the price of one 6501-70+case+power supply+mSATA, and the 2440 is a far more capable piece of hardware.
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Sadly, Development of the #net6801 has been shelved indefinitely due to high production and component costs. soekris.com
maybe you now like to switch to http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/ATOM/ or http://www.pcengines.ch/apu.htm
I think at this time, no one likes to buy a motherboard with an n old fashened Intel Atom E600 Series processor.
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maybe you now like to switch to http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/ATOM/ or http://www.pcengines.ch/apu.htm
Netgate, pfSense store, Lanner or LianTec are also selling good stuff, but with Soekris there was one more
seller on the market that is serving this especially market niche we are talking about here and this is
then for us customers really sad as I see it right. -
I'm not sad.