From owner-freebsd-arm@freebsd.org Sun Jan 22 18:01:41 2017 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arm@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 50A71CBC254 for ; Sun, 22 Jan 2017 18:01:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ian@freebsd.org) Received: from outbound1a.eu.mailhop.org (outbound1a.eu.mailhop.org [52.58.109.202]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E2DD4F35 for ; Sun, 22 Jan 2017 18:01:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ian@freebsd.org) X-MHO-User: d25eec7a-e0cc-11e6-9357-bffcd86bd944 X-Report-Abuse-To: https://support.duocircle.com/support/solutions/articles/5000540958-duocircle-standard-smtp-abuse-information X-Originating-IP: 73.78.92.27 X-Mail-Handler: DuoCircle Outbound SMTP Received: from ilsoft.org (unknown [73.78.92.27]) by outbound1.eu.mailhop.org (Halon) with ESMTPSA id d25eec7a-e0cc-11e6-9357-bffcd86bd944; Sun, 22 Jan 2017 18:01:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: from rev (rev [172.22.42.240]) by ilsoft.org (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id v0MI1SBX001551; Sun, 22 Jan 2017 11:01:28 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from ian@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <1485108088.42643.5.camel@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Durable/serious arm hardware ? From: Ian Lepore To: nowhere , freebsd-arm@freebsd.org Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2017 11:01:28 -0700 In-Reply-To: <45d41ec7-3004-ea6c-560e-50bdff9b997a@caliopea.com> References: <45d41ec7-3004-ea6c-560e-50bdff9b997a@caliopea.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-Mailer: Evolution 3.18.5.1 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "Porting FreeBSD to ARM processors." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2017 18:01:41 -0000 On Sun, 2017-01-22 at 11:19 +0100, nowhere wrote: > Hello > > I'd like to hear from the most skilled of you, if anybody knows > serious  > arm based hardware or share this though : I'm becoming convinced > that  > theses hardware (arm based) are just the consumable-smartphone > fashion  > counterpart for kids and leisures or tests. Not really final and  > carefully finished products; abble to works for years or a decade; > doing  > is job in a office corner, being forgotten  by anyone, like some of > my  > older freebsd servers wich are running for a decade now. > > > Those past years, I've bought 3 arm based devices : > > 1 raspberry-pi , which was affected by the "micron-ram-chip" bug: > except  > with debian, it never booted on freebsd (I even tried netbsd): I > just  > trashed it yesterday (bought in 2014 i think). > > 1 Beagleboneblack : works fine for weeks then freeze suddenly. And  > sometimes did not event reboot (*): had to loop-reset it until boot  > process go to the end. Seem the most "workable" product so far.. > (bought  > in 2015) > > 1 olimex a20-lime2-emmc: my most recent buy. It did not event boot > with  > network with it's own debian sd card... (I did not yet take time to > make  > it's own freebsd sd card): (bought in 2016-07). > > My goals, for example, with theses boards were to give some of my > nomads  > customers, a box with an autonomous dhcp/dns/vpn server on theyr  > networks, without the need to change anything else than disabling > their  > dhcp servers for instance : I think a Quad xeon racked server is a > bit  > too much for theses tasks; I was using pfsence on pcengines boards  > before to do this kind of things. > > Since my conclusions are based only on theses 3 boards, I'd like to > hear  > from thoses of you who works daily with these boards, and thoses > opinion  > are based on far more than my hand counted experiences. > > > PM. > > > > (*) I work with a 5V/5A (25w) psu: that's not an overloaded psu > problem;  > Not a damaged emmc/sd card problem too: all my systems are  > read-only-root based: seems to really be an hardware issue. > At $work we create commercial products running freebsd that have a 10 to 20 year (depending on the product) g'teed lifespan in the field.  We used to use Atmel arm chips on custom-designed mainboards.  Now we use primarily imx6 SOM modules from Technexion, SolidRun, and soon Boundary Devices, along with our own custom-designed carrier boards.  The imx6 SOM modules are a bit higher-end than rpi or beaglebone boards. I would say that basically you have to shop around a bit.  If you buy ultra-cheap hobbyist hardware such as an rpi, you're going to get what you pay for.  If you buy the higher-end hardware you can expect the same kind of quality and lifespan you'd get from x86 hardware (which doesn't tend to target the hobbyist market so much). -- Ian