Re: ARM 64?

[Mathew McBride <matt@traverse.com.au>]

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Hi Michael,

See answers below

On 24/5/18, 8:31 pm, "Michael Tremer" <michael.tremer(a)ipfire.org> wrote:

    Hello,
    
    On Thu, 2018-05-24 at 11:32 +1000, Mathew McBride wrote:
    > Hi Michael,
    > From the software side, the support in the kernel is fairly good, mainline
    > 4.15 and later works. We (Traverse) only maintain a patchset for some small
    > drivers (such as hwmon sensors not yet in the kernel - not required to boot)
    > and other minor fixes not yet applied upstream.
    
    Any idea if 4.14 works? We are going to use this kernel as the next one because
    it is a long-term supported one.

4.14 does work, but the network drivers for the LS1043 narrowly missed the 4.14 merge window.
They just need to be cherry-picked from a later kernel, i.e https://gitlab.com/traversetech/traverse-kernel-patches/blob/kernel-4-14/patches/0001_soc-fsl-qbman-Enable-QBMan-on-ARM-Platforms.patch
 
    > If you build an image that uses UEFI boot it will work on both our hardware
    > (bare metal), as a VM and on the ARM64 server platforms (Ampere/XGene,
    > Centriq, ThunderX), or even our competitors (MacchiatoBin etc.)
    
    I got an XGene. Not really a fan of that EFI thing it came with, but u-boot was
    in a horrible state a few years ago, too.
    
      https://planet.ipfire.org/post/our-start-with-arm64-the-applied-micro-mustang
  
    > The big difference is that we use u-boot and it's EFI implementation - and
    > that is improving at a rate that we don't feel it necessary to port TianoCore
    > to our board. 
    
    Haven't tried u-boot in EFI mode, yet. But it is a good to have everything open
    and freely distributable for us. I suppose u-boot is living in the NAND flash
    and the OS is on SSD or SD card?
Yes, u-boot is on the NAND. It will boot EFI distributions on any supported block device (SD, USB, SSD).
There are some limitations - no EFI persistent variables etc. (yet) or RTC service, but I think that will eventually be solved.
'Real' ARM servers (these days) also use ACPI instead of passing a device tree, but this doesn't really make much of a difference in user space.


    > The board Guy linked (LS1043-S) is our OEM/volume product, and he can brief
    > you on the pricing off-list. 
    
    Thanks for that.
    
[snip]    
Regards,
Matt
    > 
    > -------- Forwarded Message -------- 
    > Subject: 
    > Re: ARM 64?
    > Date: 
    > Wed, 23 May 2018 10:58:00 +0100
    > From: 
    > Michael Tremer mailto:michael.tremer(a)ipfire.org
    > To: 
    > mailto:guy(a)traverse.com.au, mailto:development(a)lists.ipfire.org
    > 
    > Hello Guy,
    > 
    > thank you very much for getting in touch.
    > 
    > Yes, we are working on an ARM 64 port, but so far we have not seen any
    > hardware
    > that was worth doing the port for. All those small and cheap single-board
    > computers lack power, the bigger systems are basically unavailable and way too
    > expensive.
    > 
    > This board is way different though. CPU, Memory and especially the NICs are
    > something that are way better sized and make a nice small appliance for bigger
    > SOHOs or small to medium-sized offices.
    > 
    > Not entirely sure why there is only one 10G port. Usually where 10G goes in,
    > it
    > has to go out somewhere else again...
    > 
    > The big question is what software support is like in the Linux kernel for
    > this.
    > I have seen the patches linked on the product page and can only defer to Arne
    > to
    > have a look at it.
    > 
    > My question would now be: What is the desired RRP for this or wholesale? I am
    > just curious to find out if it is competitive or if people would find it too
    > expensive and buy Intel again. Then we shouldn't really bother with putting
    > the
    > time into a port. If you are not comfortable sharing prices on the list,
    > please
    > feel free to email me in private about this.
    > 
    > About the sponsorship. Thank you very much for considering us. I would be
    > happy
    > to have a closer look. Would you be able to ship this into the UK or Germany?
    > 
    > Best,
    > -Michael
    > 
    > On Wed, 2018-05-23 at 12:46 +1000, Guy Ellis wrote:
    > > Dear list,
    > > 
    > > Just wondering if there is any interest in supporting ARM 64 hardware 
    > > moving forward?
    > > 
    > > We can assist with donated hardware and support if there is interest.
    > > https://traverse.com.au/products/ls1043s-router-board/
    > > 
    > > Regards,
    > >   - Guy.
    > > 
    > > 
    > 
    > 
    >