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Date:      Thu, 22 Oct 2015 13:39:18 -0600
From:      John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net>
To:        Jim Thompson <jim@netgate.com>
Cc:        freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org, freebsd-embedded@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: looking for suggestions for a small router/appliance board/SoC
Message-ID:  <7D3FEA1A-0EAF-4B0A-867D-49DCEF34D0CC@jnielsen.net>
In-Reply-To: <ED6B0DC8-7325-4054-A4CF-ED62A14FD39F@netgate.com>
References:  <2EB47812-4744-48B5-BEBF-B2074D9EEA8F@jnielsen.net> <ED6B0DC8-7325-4054-A4CF-ED62A14FD39F@netgate.com>

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On Oct 22, 2015, at 12:19 PM, Jim Thompson <jim@netgate.com> wrote:

>> On Oct 22, 2015, at 12:57 PM, John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net> =
wrote:
>>=20
>> Hi-
>>=20
>> I=E2=80=99m working on a proof-of-concept for a kind of networking =
swiss army knife. Can anyone suggest a board that meets the following =
requirements? CPU arch doesn=E2=80=99t matter as long as it will run =
FreeBSD (Atom, ARM, MIPS, etc).
>>=20
>> - Small form factor (SoC, probably)
>> - Can support at least 2 802.11a/b/g/n adapters, prefer 3 (any =
combination of chip-integrated and mini PCI-e slots. Prefer to avoid USB =
if possible)
>=20
> I openly question your need or the desirability for 3 802.11 adapters. =
 It can be made to work, but you=E2=80=99re going to have some intermod.

I don=E2=80=99t mind being questioned. :) I haven=E2=80=99t yet had to =
worry much about intermod; can you educate me? One or two of the radios =
would be in the 5GHz band at any given time. One scenario (out of =
several) where I envisioned having 3 radios is taking a wireless uplink =
(STA in either 2.4 or 5 GHz band) and repeating it (HOSTAP) on both 2.4 =
and 5 GHz. Totally crazy?

>> - Has or supports at least 2 1GbE ports. Prefer 3-5 ports with =
switching functionality
>> - Storage not super constrained. Built-in storage (if any) can be =
small (which I=E2=80=99m arbitrarily defining as less than 128MB) if =
there is also an SD card slot or similar. USB storage will do in a =
pinch.
>> - Has at least 2 free USB ports after meeting previous requirements
>> - Serial port or header (or GPIO pins that can be used as one? Not =
too familiar with that)
>> - Low power consumption (within reason taking the above into account)
>> - Low cost (again, within reason)
>>=20
>> I may just start with a PC Engines apu1d, but if there are boards =
that are smaller, cheaper, have lower power requirements and/or have =
integrated wifi or switch capabilities I=E2=80=99d like to look in to =
them as well.
>=20
> you can probably get APU in low-volume, but quantity is very =
constrained these days (it=E2=80=99s been true all year).

Good to know.

> We do have the RCC-VE and RCC-DFF units available.
>=20
> http://store.netgate.com/Desktop-Systems-C83.aspx

Thanks for the link!




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