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My SBC Collection

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Re: My SBC Collection

#21

Post by bloggie »

someplaceguy wrote: post #19

Can anyone recommend an SBC with >=16 GB of RAM that has been confirmed to run stably with the mainline kernel? Edit: to be clear, I specifically need ARM CPUs. Headless is OK (although a basic console over HDMI would be nice). To answer myself, an Orange Pi 5 might fit the bill but I'm not sure how stable it runs at 100% continuous load (on a mainline kernel).

Most of these SBCs top out at 8 GB (if you're lucky). you might be better off looking at a NUC-style tiny computer with x86 processor. There are some available on Amazon. https://www.bee-link.com/computer-73493777

Re: My SBC Collection

#22

Post by dmm »

someplaceguy wrote: post #19

Can anyone recommend an SBC with >=16 GB of RAM that has been confirmed to run stably with the mainline kernel? Edit: to be clear, I specifically need ARM CPUs. Headless is OK (although a basic console over HDMI would be nice). To answer myself, an Orange Pi 5 might fit the bill but I'm not sure how stable it runs at 100% continuous load (on a mainline kernel).

If you need that much ram, maybe consider n100 machines. For ~$180 you can a complete system with case, power supply, 16GB ram, 500GB ssd. The m.2 storage and amd64 distro compatibility makes it worthwhile to me.

Here's one example but many more are available on amazon and aliexpress: https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Desktop-Computer-Support-Ethe...

Re: My SBC Collection

#23

Post by kjs3 »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #7

A few years ago there was a kickstarter for https://parallella.org/ I think mine arrived like a year late as I recall but the hardware really appealed - a zynq dual core arm + FPGA - these are more popular now but back then this was the first I heard of these chips. The board came with the verilog for the hdmi out implemented on the fpga- as I recall there were some challenges building a bitstream like they provided…

I recall each core had a little ram and a fabric connecting it to other cores, so you could choose to use it like gpu compute

The CellBE chip used in the PS3 was like that: a full PPC 'main' processor and 8 'Synergistic Processing Element' which were (oversimplifying) stripped down processors with a lots of registers, small amount of local memory and an interconnect. Interesting idea, but in the end, not very easy to program effectively.

I do do remember seeing the Parallella and thinking 'hm, baby CellBE'. What did you create with yours?

Re: My SBC Collection

#24

Post by layer8 »

dmm wrote: post #22
someplaceguy wrote: post #19

Can anyone recommend an SBC with >=16 GB of RAM that has been confirmed to run stably with the mainline kernel? Edit: to be clear, I specifically need ARM CPUs. Headless is OK (although a basic console over HDMI would be nice). To answer myself, an Orange Pi 5 might fit the bill but I'm not sure how stable it runs at 100% continuous load (on a mainline kernel).

If you need that much ram, maybe consider n100 machines. For ~$180 you can a complete system with case, power supply, 16GB ram, 500GB ssd. The m.2 storage and amd64 distro compatibility makes it worthwhile to me. Here's one example but many more are available on amazon and aliexpress: https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Desktop-Computer-Support-Ethe...

Yep, the N100 is now the go-to in that performance range. Though personally I’d spend a bit more and get a fanless version, like e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Mini-PC-Firewall-Appliance-Lake-N100/....

Re: My SBC Collection

#25

Post by kjs3 »

squarefoot wrote: post #16

The number of affordable still very powerful SBCs has grown to the point we probably need something like the rosettacode (.org) site, but aimed at comparing ways of obtaining the same tasks in a few chosen languages but on different hardware, for example how to flip a gpio, how to send a pwm signal to a mosfet, how to read this or that sensor, how to draw on graphics LCDs, communicate with RF modules, etc. followed t…

Sounds closer to the OSDev Wiki[1] than Rosettacode, but sure, that's a pretty nifty idea. I would gauge how many people are SBC collectors/hoarders before I went looking for a seed round tho. I'd guess outside of RPi's, Arduinos and a handful of other big names, there's a pretty small community that is really playing with multiple boards much less different processor archs regularly who could maximize a service like this. Most people I know focus on one or a small number of platforms, either because of budget or cognitive burden, but that's anicdata so who really knows.

I will of course suggest my obligatory pet peeve: for boards where it's applicable, indicate "can it run a stock kernel or does it rely on out-of-tree, vendor or community supplied/supported blobs" before I waste a lot of time reading further.

[1] https://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page

Re: My SBC Collection

#26

Post by throwup238 »

kjs3 wrote: post #25
squarefoot wrote: post #16

The number of affordable still very powerful SBCs has grown to the point we probably need something like the rosettacode (.org) site, but aimed at comparing ways of obtaining the same tasks in a few chosen languages but on different hardware, for example how to flip a gpio, how to send a pwm signal to a mosfet, how to read this or that sensor, how to draw on graphics LCDs, communicate with RF modules, etc. followed t…

Sounds closer to the OSDev Wiki[1] than Rosettacode, but sure, that's a pretty nifty idea. I would gauge how many people are SBC collectors/hoarders before I went looking for a seed round tho. I'd guess outside of RPi's, Arduinos and a handful of other big names, there's a pretty small community that is really playing with multiple boards much less different processor archs regularly who could maximize a service like…

> indicate "can it run a stock kernel or does it rely on out-of-tree, vendor or community supplied/supported blobs" before I waste a lot of time reading further.

Seconded. At this point, unless a client is explicitly paying (a lot) for a specific processor, custom BSPs with outdated kernels are an absolute showstopper. I won't even bother evaluating the platform any further.

Re: My SBC Collection

#27

Post by francis_t_catte »

TruthWillHurt wrote: post #2

No one remembers the GuruPlug, or better yet - the GuruPlug Server Plus, When RPi 1 just came out this little gadget ran x86 Linux (!) and had hdmi out that could handle 1080p video, a feat that only RPi 4 can repeat.

the Sheevaplug, Guruplug, and Dreamplug are what really got me into embedded computing and linux. I still have my Sheevaplug in storage, and a Dreamplug in service as my internal DNS server. the Marvell Kirkwood SoCs they were based on were quite long lived, eventually being rebranded as lower-end Armada chipsets.

P.S. if anyone wants to tinker with that ecosystem, there's still quite a number of people dedicated to packaging up Debian for them, and if you're okay with some soldering to get UART access, you can get a brand new $18 Dell Kace M300 to try out. in a lot of ways, I still prefer them to any newer single-board computers, despite my pretty significant collection at this point.

Re: My SBC Collection

#28

Post by squarefoot »

throwup238 wrote: post #26
kjs3 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds closer to the OSDev Wiki[1] than Rosettacode, but sure, that's a pretty nifty idea. I would gauge how many people are SBC collectors/hoarders before I went looking for a seed round tho. I'd guess outside of RPi's, Arduinos and a handful of other big names, there's a pretty small community that is really playing with multiple boards much less different processor archs regularly who could maximize a service like…

> indicate "can it run a stock kernel or does it rely on out-of-tree, vendor or community supplied/supported blobs" before I waste a lot of time reading further. Seconded. At this point, unless a client is explicitly paying (a lot) for a specific processor, custom BSPs with outdated kernels are an absolute showstopper. I won't even bother evaluating the platform any further.

For SBCs that can run Linux, such information can be found on Armbian and DietPI forums where usually they discuss porting and availability of kernels and/or other software.

Re: My SBC Collection

#29

Post by kjs3 »

squarefoot wrote: post #28
throwup238 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> indicate "can it run a stock kernel or does it rely on out-of-tree, vendor or community supplied/supported blobs" before I waste a lot of time reading further. Seconded. At this point, unless a client is explicitly paying (a lot) for a specific processor, custom BSPs with outdated kernels are an absolute showstopper. I won't even bother evaluating the platform any further.

For SBCs that can run Linux, such information can be found on Armbian and DietPI forums where usually they discuss porting and availability of kernels and/or other software.

Let me add a requirement: Do I have to google the shit out of multiple forums to find out what it can run and how to keep it running? Also a waste of my time.

P.S. - SBC here means more than Arm.

Re: My SBC Collection

#30

Post by pehtis »

0cVlTeIATBs wrote: post #17

I also have a bunch of SBCs lying around waiting to be used, and also an ODROID HC2 which has been in use for years. I only dislike that it's not powerful enough for encryption--LUKS + samba could not read/write at disk speeds and was unreliable in my testing. Really wish there would be an upgrade to the HC2 with about three to four times the performance.

Have you seen H3+ ? it looks like its an HC2 with a more powerful CPU. I just received one and my plan to install OpenBSD on it some time this week.
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