Date: Sun, 31 May 2020 11:04:37 -0600 From: Ian Lepore <ian@freebsd.org> To: "Dr. Rolf Jansen" <freebsd@cyclaero.com>, freebsd-arm@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BeagleBone AI Message-ID: <845302190a78fdc46fac0f34326daad4496c7227.camel@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <DCF67826-C2CA-461F-9A61-F934F6FB042A@cyclaero.com> References: <DCF67826-C2CA-461F-9A61-F934F6FB042A@cyclaero.com>
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On Fri, 2020-05-29 at 23:21 -0300, Dr. Rolf Jansen wrote: > We are starting a new project of industrial device controllers. We > want to utilize ARM-SBCs as unit controllers (and here a unit is one > industrial device), and we need to attach at least 24 ADCs, 8 DACs > and 16 DIOs to each unit controller (UC). Many unit controllers > (eventually tenths to hundreds) would then communicate by a custom > protocol over ethernet with a command and control server. The UCs and > the C&C server would be operated by FreeBSD. Direct interoperability > of the UCs with 3rd party IT systems is not a concern, integration > needs to be done via the C&C server. > > Since the sample/update rate requirements are quite low, we are going > the I²C path, and initial testing has been done using the BeagleBone > Black. It got 2 separate I²C 400 kbit/s busses which helps already, > avoiding I²C address conflicts. Yet, the 8 port I²C switch TCA9548A > is working very well, and we are now sure to be able to attach enough > ADCs, DACs and DIOs to each unit controller. > > Although the initial viability tests were done with a BeagleBone > Black running FreeBSD 13-CURRENT, we could start with another more > modern SBC. > > First Question: > > What modern SBC with more than 1 I²C bus and which can run FreeBSD > 13++ would you suggest? > > > Now recently, I found the BeagleBone AI site > https://beagleboard.org/ai/ <https://beagleboard.org/ai/>. This one > got also 2 I²C busses, and physically, with respect to a housing, it > could be a 1:1 replacement for a BBB. It seems, this one is still too > new for FreeBSD. I am very fond of the BB concept - for me it is much > more appealing for industrial embedded applications than for example > any RPI. However, the BBB came to age, and I would start a new > project with it only, if there would be a reasonable chance for an > upgrade path. > > Two more Questions: > > Is it reasonable to assume that FreeBSD would run on a BBAI in the > future, let¢s say in 2 to 3 years? > > Perhaps I could help porting FreeBSD to a BBAI. What would be the > general steps? > > > Many thanks in advance for any suggestions, advices and > clarifications. > > Best regards > > Rolf > The only problem with the Beaglebone is that the TI linux developers are continually tinkering with their drivers and DTS source, and they seemingly don't care about the devicetree rules for maintaining compatibility, so freebsd tends to break on BB boards every time we import new DTS sources. If you want to stick with armv7/32-bit stuff, I would say your best bet for long term freebsd support would be Allwinner or imx6. I keep hearing mumbling about freebsd throwing all 32-bit support overboard in a future release. I have no idea how serious any of that mumbling is, but if there's any truth to it at all, then switching to one of the low-cost well-supported arm64 boards, such as pine64, might be a better option. -- Ian
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