On Fri, 24 Jun 2016 04:30:39 +0300 li...@wrant.com wrote: > > What is more important is the level of engineering information > available from the manufacturer (PC Engines) web site including tech > specs, manual, BIOS updates, accessories, enclosures, diag boards and > also: Schematics!
I certainly dig schematics! Don't forget, they use coreboot. > > This seems to be by far more friendly to both engineer & consumer > users. > > PC Engines APU2 product line > [http://www.pcengines.ch/apu2b2.htm] > > 1) How do the APU systems go as pricing to comparable systems from > other similar (industrial class, desktop enclosure) manufacturers? I have two APU2C4 boards. The price is not bad, and the ALIX/APU boards are not loaded with consumer-grade "ooh, aah" bullet-point rubbish, unlike some of the VIA boards which are (quite worryingly) also marketed towards medical devices. I am just a little disappointed in the way the components used are just the consumer/low-end commercial grade versions (0-70degC operating temps, etc). However, it certainly saves cost! In addition, the clips for the mSATA/mPCIe slots, given that the use of metallic screw points would improve grounding to the devices and would be a lot more robust and resilient against vibration; with screw posts, there is the option of using rubber washers too. And, screw posts would cost an order of magnitude less, considering the cost of assembly too. > > 2) How is the OpenBSD experience on the APU systems, do they have > serial RS232 console (serial BIOS), do they expose all the hardware > to OpenBSD? The serial (RS232) console is set up to use 115200 baud by default (I am unsure if this is changeable), so make sure this is in /etc/boot.conf: stty com0 115200 set tty com0 I would in fact recommend writing "installXX.fs" directly to a USB, and then mounting /dev/sd#a to edit boot.conf to add those lines in right at the top, before installing. It makes life easier. I have not had the opportunity to test the GPIO support though; the watchdog timer is not supported by OpenBSD, so whatever you do, do not enable the watchdog timer yet. > > Thank you for providing valuable technical feedback on these what > appears to be the smarter choice over the other low power devices. > It is definitely the smarter choice; on average, I notice around 5-6W consumption, although that does vary depending on load. The header pitches are 2.54mm too; this makes it very easy to obtain plugs to connect to these headers.
