Translation(s): none


This page describes compares build hardware options for arm hard float both currently available and possiblly available in the future.

In general red means poor, yellow means ok and green means good. White means insufficiant information available to assign a color. These judgements are somewhat subjective but I (plugwash) belive them to be reasonable. See the table at the bottom for details of the color codes.

Prices may be approximate and/or outdated and are given for guidance only.

Board vendor

SoC vendor

Product

Ram

Cores

Clock

Sata

Ethernet

Price

Status / Availability

Form factor

kernel suppport

Currently used by

Freescale

IMX53 quickstart board

1GB

1

1 GHz

1x Native 1.5 Gbps

1x Native 100 Mbps

$162.04

In stock at mouser and digikey

3x3 inch devboard

Hardware needed for autobuilder works with debian kernel, but some other onboard hardware doesn't.

Debian Raspbian

Texas instruments

PandaBoard

1GB

2

1 GHz

none

1x USB based 100 Mbps

$169.21

In stock at mouser and digikey

4.0x4.5 inch devboard

Hardware needed for autobuilder works with debian kernel, but some other onboard hardware doesn't.

Ubuntu

Texas instruments

PandaBoard ES

1GB

2

1.2 GHz

none

1x USB based 100 Mbps

$178.48

In stock at mouser and digikey

4.0x4.5 inch devboard

Hardware needed for autobuilder works with debian kernel, but some other onboard hardware doesn't.

Openblocks

Marvell

OBSAX3/2

1 GB

2

1.33 GHz

1x internal 1x external, native 3Gbps

2x 1Gbps, native

$753

No ordering link given, apparently only available in japan

small box, exact size not given

No support in debian kernel, vendor situation unclear

Openblocks

Marvell

OBSAX3/4

1 GB onboard plus up to 2 GB sodimm

2

1.33 GHz

1x internal 1x external, native 3Gbps

4x 1Gbps, native

$879

No ordering link given, apparently only available in japan

small box, exact size not given

No support in debian kernel, vendor situation unclear

Boston

calexeda

virdis

4GB per node

4 per node

not stated

4 speed not stated

10 Gbps backplane system, 4 external SFP+ connections supporting 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps speeds

$10000 for minimal setup with four nodes

appears to be available but no info given on lead times

2U rackmount with space for 12 cards each with four nodes and 24 hard drives

no support in debian kernel, vendor situation unknown

Wandboard

Freescale

http://wandboard.org

2GB

4

~1GHz

1 native

1GB, only supports up to 480MB

$130-180

http://wandboard.org/index.php/buy

6x6x1 inch w/case

jessie linux kernel (3.16+)

tests.reproducible-builds.org

column

red

yellow

green

ram

1 GB (anything less than 1GB is IMO not worthy of being used as an autobuilder at all)

2-3 GB

4 GB or more.

cores

1

2

4 or more.

clockspeed

less than 1 GHz

exactly 1 GHz

more than 1 GHz

Sata

no port at all or a USB based port

1.5 Gbps native port

3Gbps or higher native port

ethernet

no port or a USB based port

Native port other than 1000BASE-T

Native 1000BASE-T

price

over $1000 per node

$500-$1000 per node

under $500 per node

availability

not yet released.

available but with issues or no lead time information

ready availability from stock

form factor

looks like a massive pain to mount in a rack.

looks like it could be fitted in a rackmount case or to a rack shelf with a little effort

can be trivially racked (either comes in a rackmount case or comes as a stanard PC form factor board for which rackmount cases can be purchased)

kernel support

no usable support in debian and a vendor kernel that does not seem to be getting updates.

either adequate (ethernet, SATA (either native if present or an external usb controller if not) and some means of getting a console work) but not full support in debian kernels or a vendor kernel that is reasonably up to date

full support in debian kernels