Dave Taht <dave.taht@gmail.com> wrote:
    > I had multiple goals for them - primarily I wanted cheap and
    > cheap-to-power wifi and ethernet test targets. I settled on the
    > c.h.i.p. for a while for wifi.

I have a few (3-4) that I'm not using if you want them.
(Never removed from the box)

    > In most cases getting a modern kernel was a major problem. The odroid
    > C2 was my fastest network test target (can't drive 1gbit bidir tho),
    > and stuck on linux 3.10 for several years now. (I've heard rumors 4.x
    > almost works now).

I didn't think that odroid had problems taking the latest kernels.
I just bought one for a project involving hubofallthings.

    > Anyway the nanopi folk are now producing a wide range of boards I
    > haven't tried... til tomorrow:

    > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0728LPB2R/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    > These appear to be supported on modern kernels in armbian (which has
    > thus far been the "best" distro for these hackerboards for me).

    > https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-neo-2/

I'm using the Orange PI Zero in a project, and armbian debian has 4.13.16
kernel.  But, I'm not trying to push gigabit ethernet; rather the opposite.
I just want wired connectivity.  Sadly the "PoE" support for the OPI0 is not
IEEE spec, just a jumper that lets you feed 5V in...  Rumours are that the
built-in wifi sucks, but I actively don't want wifi anyway.  I do like that
it can boot uboot from NOR FLASH.

I believe I will 3D print a case that accomodates two USB interfaced
ethernets via pins on the system, so that from the outside it looks smart.
I will have to pick my USB devices carefully as I need auto-X PHYs, which
usually only comes with GbE.

    > On the really high end the 48 core arm boxes from cavium look interesting.

I'm told that there is some special sauce to get them to go at the speeds the
specs say.  Basically you run Linux on one core, and a special (binary blob)
micro kernel on the other 47, and manage them via FORCES.

--
]               Never tell me the odds!                 | ipv6 mesh networks [
]   Michael Richardson, Sandelman Software Works        | network architect  [
]     mcr@sandelman.ca  http://www.sandelman.ca/        |   ruby on rails    [