You should talk about this project at FOSSDEM! Two potential funders off the top of my head:
https://nlnet.nl/funding.html https://www.ardc.net/apply/ Ardc funded the latest round of the librerouter project in argentina, which is also openwrt based, but intended for outdoor. a 10 year design life would be nice. Gpon support instead of a 2.5Gbit port? The A53s are pretty weak. I would certainly like to see people squeeze more performance out of these... I am more a software guy than hw, I would like to see "matter" begin to matter. 802.14 anyone? Also: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/cerowrt-ii-would-anyone-care/110554 Otherwise, I applaud. We could really use a reference router. I still use (and love) my wndr3800s. Have not seen much reason to upgrade. There´s still improvements to the ath9k feasible! On Tue, Jan 9, 2024 at 5:52 AM John Crispin <j...@phrozen.org> wrote: > > tl;dr > > In 2024 the OpenWrt project turns 20 years! Let's celebrate this > anniversary by launching our own first and fully upstream supported > hardware design. > > If the community likes the idea outlined below in greater details, we > would like to start a vote. > > --- > > The idea > > It is not new. We first spoke about this during the OpenWrt Summits in > 2017 and also 2018. It became clear start of December 2023 while > tinkering with Banana Pi style devices that they are already pretty > close to what we wanted to achieve in ’17/‘18. Banana PIs have grown in > popularity within the community. They boot using a self compiled Trusted > Firmware-A (TF-A)and upstream U-Boot (thx MTK/Daniel) and some of the > boards are already fully supported by the upstream Linux kernel. The > only nonopen sourcecomponents are the 2.5 GbE PHYandWi-Fi firmware > blobsrunning on separate cores that areindependent of the main SoC > running Linuxand the DRAM calibration routines which are executed early > during boot. > > I contacted three project members (pepe2k, dangole, nbd) on December 6th > to outline the overall idea. We went over several design proposals, At > the beginning we focused on the most powerful (and expensive) > configurations possible but finally ended up with something rather > simple and above all,feasible. We would like to propose the following as > our "first" community driven HW platform called "OpenWrt One/AP-24.XY". > > Together with pepe2k (thx a lot) I discussed this for many hours and we > worked out the following project proposal. Instead of going insane with > specifications, we decided to include some nice features we believe all > OpenWrt supported platforms should have (e.g. being almost > unbrickablewith multiple recovery options, hassle-free system console > access, on-board RTC with battery backup etc.). > > This is our first design, so let's KiSS! > > > Hardwarespecifications: > > * SOC: MediaTek MT7981B > * Wi-Fi: MediaTek MT7976C (2x2 2.4 GHz + 3x3/2x2 + zero-wait DFS 5Ghz) > * DRAM: 1 GiB DDR4 > * Flash: 128 MiB SPI NAND+ 4 MiB SPI NOR > * Ethernet: 2x RJ45 (2.5 GbE + 1 GbE) > * USB (host): USB 2.0 (Type-A port) > * USB (device, console): Holtek HT42B534-2 UART to USB (USB-C port) > * Storage: M.2 2042 for NVMe SSD (PCIe gen 2 x1) > * Buttons: 2x (reset + user) > * Mechanical switch: 1x for boot selection (recovery, regular) > * LEDs: 2x (PWM driven), 2x ETH Led (GPIO driven) > * External hardware watchdog: EM Microelectronic EM6324 (GPIO driven) > * RTC: NXP PCF8563TS (I2C) with battery backup holder(CR1220) > * Power: USB-PD-12V on USB-C port (optional802.3at/afPoE via RT5040 module) > * Expansion slots: mikroBUS > * Certification: FCC/EC/RoHS compliance > * Case: PCB size is compatible to BPi-R4 and the case design can be re-used > * JTAG for main SOC: 10-pin 1.27 mm pitch (ARM JTAG/SWD) > * Antenna connectors: 3x MMCX for easy usage, assembly and durability > * Schematics: these will be publicly available (license TBD) > * GPL compliance: 3b. "Accompany it with a written offer ... to give any > third party ... a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding > source code" > * Price: aiming for below 100$ > > > How will the device be distributed? > > OpenWrt itself cannot handle this for a ton of reasons. This is why we > spoke with the SFC early. The idea is that BPi will distribute the > device using the already established channels and for every device sold > a donation will be made to ourSFC earmarked fund for OpenWrt. This money > can then be used to cover hosting expenses or maybe an OpenWrt summit. > > SFC is committed to working with us in various ways on this project — > including making sure OpenWrt'strademark is properly respected, that > this router isabeautiful example of excellent GPL/LGPL compliance, > andthatthis becomes a great promotional opportunity for our project and > FOSS generally! > > > FAQ > > * Why are there are 2 different flash chips? > - the idea is to make the device (almost!) unbrickable and very easy to > recover > - NAND will hold the main loader (U-Boot) and the Linux image and will > be the default boot device > - NOR will be write-protected by default (with WP jumper available on > the board) and will hold a recovery bootloader (and other essential > data, like Wi-Fi calibration) > - a dedicated boot select switch will allow changing between NOR and NAND > > * What will the M.2 slot be used for? > - we will use M.2 with M-key for NVMe storage. There is a > work-in-progress patch to make PCIe work inside the U-Boot bootloader. > This will allow booting other Linux distributions such as Debian and > Alpine directly from NVMe > > * Why is there no USB 3.x host port on the device? > - the USB 3.x and PCIe buses are shared in the selected SoC silicon, > hence only a single High-Speed USB port is available > > * What is the purpose of the console USB-C port? > - Holtek UART to USB bridge with CDC-ACM support on USB-C makes the > device ultra easy to communicate with. No extra hardware or drivers will > be required. Android for example has CDC-ACM support enabled by default > > * What MAC OUI will the device have? > - we plan to register an OUI block for OpenWrt which can also be used > for other vendor extensions such as Wi-Fi beacon IEs > > * What is the purpose of the mikroBUS connector? > - mikroBUS was chosen as we wanted to make the hardware extendable. > There are dedicated pins for UART, SPI, I2C buses and RST/INT signals. > The standard uses regular 2.54 mm pitch connectors (you can use > available mikroBUS modules or just connect to it something else, with > 2.54 mm jumper cables) > > * Why have the RTC on board instead of a mikroBUS module? > - we believe there are many things a Wi-Fi (or networking in general) > device should have on-board by default. Always having a correct time on > the device is crucial in many applications, like VPN, DNSSEC, … > > > Timeline of events leading up to this e-mail > > Forgive us for the lack of public communication during the initial > phase(which as you can see was short and quick). We wanted to ensure > that this project is feasible before disclosing it to the community. It > would be a real shame if we announced something that we later found out > to not be feasible thus failing expectations raised within the community. > > 03.12 - initial idea > 06.12 - ping pepe2k, dangole, nbd > 07.12 - ping MediaTek and ask if this sounds doable > 08.12 - ping jow, Hauke > 08.12 - request for call with SFC, we want them involved as soon as possible > 09.12 - MediaTek replies and says they can help > 09.12 - ping apacar, ynezz, dwmm2, lynxis, rsalvaterra > 12.12 - MediaTek spoke with Banana Pi, they also like the idea > 18.12 - call with SFC (Hauke joined, we found no prior slot to talk) > 20.12 - started writing the U-Boot PCIe driver, made recovery from USB > and android fastboot recovery work. > ... and then the end of year celebrations started and not much happened > for 2 weeks. > 03.01-08.01 - write this text > > > Thanks, > Signed-off-by: Alexander Couzens <lyn...@fe80.eu> > Signed-off-by: Bradley M. Kuhn <bk...@sfconservancy.org> > Signed-off-by: Daniel Golle <dan...@makrotopia.org> > Signed-off-by: David Bauer <m...@david-bauer.net> > Signed-off-by: Denver Gingerich <den...@sfconservancy.org> > Signed-off-by: Felix Fietkau <n...@nbd.name> > Signed-off-by: Hauke Mehrtens <ha...@hauke-m.de> > Signed-off-by: John Crispin <j...@phrozen.org> > Signed-off-by: Jo-Philipp Wich <j...@mein.io> > Signed-off-by: Paul Spooren <m...@aparcar.org> > Signed-off-by: Petr Štetiar <yn...@true.cz> > Signed-off-by: Piotr Dymacz <pep...@gmail.com> > Signed-off-by: Steven Liu <steven....@mediatek.com> > > > > _______________________________________________ > openwrt-devel mailing list > openwrt-devel@lists.openwrt.org > https://lists.openwrt.org/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel -- 40 years of net history, a couple songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9RGX6QFm5E Dave Täht CSO, LibreQos _______________________________________________ openwrt-devel mailing list openwrt-devel@lists.openwrt.org https://lists.openwrt.org/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel
