From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 24 15:30:05 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F2B7616A4B3 for ; Wed, 24 Sep 2003 15:30:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: from malasada.lava.net (malasada.lava.net [64.65.64.17]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 504BA44003 for ; Wed, 24 Sep 2003 15:30:04 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cliftonr@lava.net) Received: by malasada.lava.net (Postfix, from userid 102) id 95E9F15393B; Wed, 24 Sep 2003 12:30:03 -1000 (HST) Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 12:30:03 -1000 From: Clifton Royston To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20030924123003.B23100@tikitechnologies.com> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i Subject: VIA EPIA-M10000 board "just works" with FreeBSD 4.8 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 22:30:05 -0000 For anyone who's interested, I've been running FreeBSD 4.8 on the EPIA-10000M mini-ITX for at least a couple months now; it's available for as little as $160 with CPU + motherboard + case + p/s bought integrated as the FIC Falcon CR53, and there's a surprising amount of I/O integrated onboard. For anybody who's looking to build cheap but reasonably powerful servers or desktop machines, this looks like a winner. I haven't run any real benchmarks, but in terms of "feel" it might be equivalent to maybe a 500-600MHz PIII. The total server parts list ran about $350 with shipping, including 7200rpm IDE drive and a 2nd 100BT card (Linksys LNE100TX.) I haven't tried X or the sound capabilities so I'm not sure how suitable it would be for a desktop; I also haven't tested whether the IEEE-1394 would work under FreeBSD. For a low-end server, though, it's pretty nice, and moderately quiet too. The motherboard includes integrated CPU, 1 DDR slot, 4 USB, 2 serial, 1 parallel I/O, 2 IEEE-1394, floppy port, dual IDE, SVGA out + SVHS TV out, 10/100 LAN, and 1 PCI. The IDE interface works at ATA133 under FreeBSD 4.8; the VIA/Realtek ethernet is recognized as vr0. The CPU integrated on the motherboard is a 1GHz VIA C3, an IDT descendant - the newer "Nehemiah" core which is claimed to have better instructions per clock than the older VIA cores. Matt Dillon posted about the earlier EPIA boards a while back, so I thought I'd add a note that this one also works well. -- Clifton, not a VIA salesrep -- Clifton Royston -- LavaNet Systems Architect -- cliftonr@lava.net Did you ever fly a kite in bed? Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head? Did you ever milk this kind of cow? Well we can do it. We know how. If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good. -- Dr. Seuss