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    FYI: there's something cool coming from PC Engines

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • Z
      zanthos
      last edited by

      Some features:

      • AMD Embedded G series GX-412TC

      • AES-NI support

      • ECC memory

      • 3x Intel ethernet

      • USB 3

      see http://pcengines.ch/apu2b4.htm

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      • jahonixJ
        jahonix
        last edited by

        Do you have permission from Pascal/PCengines to post this link in public forums?
        At the time of APU betas (was it 2 years ago, really?) I was explicitly asked not to spread it.

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        • ?
          Guest
          last edited by

          AMD Embedded G series GX-412TC
          AES-NI support
          ECC memory
          3x Intel ethernet
          USB 3

          Cool, nice to hear about that, I would say it is fine to get the hands on this product.
          4 Cores at 1GHz should be more sufficient as I see it right.

          Do you have permission from Pascal/PCengines to post this link in public forums?

          If the Link is up everybody is able to find it over Google!

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          • D
            doktornotor Banned
            last edited by

            No ShitTek this time? Finally!!!  ;D

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            • jahonixJ
              jahonix
              last edited by

              You mean ReallyNot NICs?  ;D

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              • jahonixJ
                jahonix
                last edited by

                @BlueKobold:

                Do you have permission from Pascal/PCengines to post this link in public forums?

                If the Link is up everybody is able to find it over Google!

                No.
                First you don't know how the new device will be called so you can only guess what to look for and
                have you ever heard of robots.txt? You can tell the crawlers what to index and what not of a web site.

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                • JailerJ
                  Jailer
                  last edited by

                  Well they have the apu2b2 on the price list and it's listed as beta test, but no apu2b4. Curious what the price on it will be.

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                  • ?
                    Guest
                    last edited by

                    Well they have the apu2b2 on the price list and it's listed as beta test,

                    And this means beta only as i see it right.

                    but no apu2b4. Curious what the price on it will be.

                    The APU2b2 comes without ECC RAM but the APU2B4 does and now please
                    read the release notes:

                    Release notes
                    BIOS is not feature complete yet, in particular -
                    • No boot from SD card.
                    • ECC not working yet.
                    • Boot order selection not working yet.
                    • iPXE module not included yet.

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                    • L
                      lfam
                      last edited by

                      That SOC includes a "Platform Security Processor", which, as far as I can tell, is an ARM core implementing TrustZone, but for the amd64 platform. If those features are accessible, it would be very cool.

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                      • B
                        bendavid
                        last edited by

                        Anyone know if this platform can support DPDK?

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                        • ?
                          Guest
                          last edited by

                          Interesting they have AES-NI instructions on AMD…

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                          • ?
                            Guest
                            last edited by

                            Anyone know if this platform can support DPDK?

                            Until now I was only seeing or hearing this (DPDK) named together with the Intel
                            QuickAssist Technology could it might be the same or something that is based on the other perhaps?

                            Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) is perhaps something that give you the capability to
                            write your own code for the Intel QuickAssist Technology. Here is what I found about that.
                            Intel Quick Assist Technology (DPDK)

                            Interesting they have AES-NI instructions on AMD…

                            I think this is something like the MMX,SSE, and so on registers that can be inserted also by others
                            if they paying license fees to the other part who was doing the research, but good for us as customers
                            that we can until now also buying AMD CPUs that comes with this feature or function inside, or am I wrong
                            with this?

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                            • B
                              bendavid
                              last edited by

                              I'm pretty sure DPDK is not tied to QuickAssist (and that the document you link to is just an example of how the two can be used together).

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                              • J
                                jwt Netgate
                                last edited by

                                DPDK is not tied to quickassist.

                                But a 1GHz part isn't going to be that fast, either.

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                                • ?
                                  Guest
                                  last edited by

                                  I am left wondering why they chose to keep the same 6" x 6" form factor of the old board, instead of Nano-ITX or Mini-ITX.

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                                  • ?
                                    Guest
                                    last edited by

                                    @jwt:

                                    DPDK is not tied to quickassist.

                                    But a 1GHz part isn't going to be that fast, either.

                                    Thanks for enlighten us in this case. but why then some board vendors do promotion likes this for their boards?
                                    Supports Intel DPDK enabling software

                                    Because if this would not be tend to AES-NI or QuickAssist, what is the goal for this DPDK option?

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                                    • J
                                      jwt Netgate
                                      last edited by

                                      @Phishfry:

                                      I am left wondering why they chose to keep the same 6" x 6" form factor of the old board, instead of Nano-ITX or Mini-ITX.

                                      To fit their cases, just like the Alix and APU have the same footprint and external connectors.

                                      The mistake is that they kept the same CPU down with a heat-spreader attached to the case design.  That's (still) gonna suck.

                                      BTW, I posted about this board back in January:
                                      https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=83075.msg474524#msg474524

                                      RCC-DFF is better.

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                                      • L
                                        lfam
                                        last edited by

                                        @jwt:

                                        RCC-DFF is better.

                                        Perhaps, but the apu2b4 will cost about $100 less when you include the case and power supply. Assuming the current prices and CHF->USD exchange rate holds.

                                        How much of an issue is heat dissipation for the apu1d4? Does it affect performance or does it just "run hot"?

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                                        • J
                                          jwt Netgate
                                          last edited by

                                          Perhaps, but the apu2b4 will cost about $100 less when you include the case and power supply. Assuming the current prices and CHF->USD exchange rate holds.

                                          There is only $50 delta in the boards.  Where is your other $50?  Show your work.  8)

                                          How much of an issue is heat dissipation for the apu1d4? Does it affect performance or does it just "run hot"?

                                          Eventually you will either have to either throttle the CPUs (from 1GHz to… lower), or things crash (because some other component gets too hot.)

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                                          • jahonixJ
                                            jahonix
                                            last edited by

                                            @lfam:

                                            How much of an issue is heat dissipation for the apu1d4?

                                            APU cooling is so critical that only black and red chassis are advised.
                                            A silver chassis's thermal transportation capacity (heat coefficient) is too low.

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