Any one try Gateworks they have a 533 with 4 miniPCI?

[fastrev]

:?:
Just curious if anyone has tried to use these. Or know if they will work or not for star-os?

http://www.gateworks.com/avila_family.htm

-fastrev

[lonnie]

What is the pricing of these units? We cannot develop for boards that nobody can afford to buy. They look cool though. Our software has never been ported to other than x86 and know the x86 machines so well.

[pacux]

It seems VERY interesting. With 4 miniPCI it could the job of 2 WRAPS. We generally install systems with 3 180º sectorials and 1 backhaul. So 4 miniPCI is an ideal system. Could be better with more processor, but maybe 533 Xscale is sufficient for an 80% of the installations.

[fastrev]

Not bad prices, but in qty, pretty good.
I called them and the 2port Ethernet and 4 miniPCI list price is $361 for 1, but in lrg qty $284. I just talked to someone filling-in, most are at the show. The 4 port switch version is priced a few buck higher. Someone is to call me back today with details.

Compared to getting 2 wrap boards, 2 CF, 2 POE, 2 Cables on Tower the prices look to be similar to WRAP prices for me.

Also, the specs show upto 32MB flash onboard, it might not even need a CF to run Star-OS then?

And they have it running linux allready! Although I have no idea how much work it would take to port Star-os. Maybe this would be the next generation of WRAP boards for all of us? It could be solving the three limitation of the WRAP: # of miniPCI, # of Ethernet ports, and HP of cpu.

[pacux]

It seems that this Xscale processor could be better than I expected :

quote from Avila Press Release (http://www.gateworks.com/press/gw2342pr.pdf) :

The Intel IXP network processors have been designed for the most demanding networking applications
and combine a high-performance Intel XScale core with additional network processing engines (NPEs) to
achieve wire-speed packet processing performance. Additionally, the IXP processors include integrated
hardware acceleration of popular cryptography algorithms (SHA-1, MD5, DES, 3DES, AES) for wireless and
VPN applications that require a high level of security.

[Skaught]

I wonder how much a single mpci and single eth are.

still on the lookout for a cpe solution.

[jeff]

I for one would love to see star running on xscale. You get more bang for the mhz and these would be very cost effective relative to 2 wraps. The biggest problem would be self interference by the radios. With 4 inside one enclosure no matter how you set them the noise floor of each is going to rise.

[go.fast]

I for one would love to see star running on xscale. You get more bang for the mhz and these would be very cost effective relative to 2 wraps. The biggest problem would be self interference by the radios. With 4 inside one enclosure no matter how you set them the noise floor of each is going to rise.

Not if you have 5.3, 5.8 and 2.4
George

[greg]

Any updates on this? A four radio system with some beefed up HP would be of interest here. How tough would it be to port StarOS to it?

[fastrev]

:idea: The Linksys WRV54g and Netgear WG302 are both based on the same board. Imagine being able to re-flash them to star-os! That also would be a plus to the port.

[bobbyc]

Would the desktop version of starOS boot up on this board and detect minipci cards? I know its hard to say until someone gets one.... right?
Bob C

[jeff]

I for one would love to see star running on xscale. You get more bang for the mhz and these would be very cost effective relative to 2 wraps. The biggest problem would be self interference by the radios. With 4 inside one enclosure no matter how you set them the noise floor of each is going to rise.

Not if you have 5.3, 5.8 and 2.4
George

Nothing is ever free. There are filters on the input and the output of the radios, but if you have ever looked at a plot there harmonics at many outlying frequencies. The more rf sources you put inside a metal box the more potential you have for noise to penetrate somewhere you don't expect. I will stand firmly by the statement that "no matter how you set them the noise floor of each is going to rise." The overall system will probably still be usable, but the connection quality on any given radio will not be as good as it would be if it were mounted in its own grounded enclosure.

[bobbyc]

has anyone here ordered one yet?
Am I gonna be the first to do so? I ask again, is there even a remote chance that the current starOS will load onto this and possibly detect minipci radios, and the ethernet chipset?
Bob C

[bradg]

has anyone here ordered one yet?
Am I gonna be the first to do so? I ask again, is there even a remote chance that the current starOS will load onto this and possibly detect minipci radios, and the ethernet chipset?
Bob C

No, there is no chance the current Star-OS releases will run on this platform.

Star-OS is compiled to run on x86 compatible hardware. This platform is XScale (ARM), a totally different CPU architecture.


Brad

[lonnie]

bradg has it correct. The company has contacted me and we will see about this in 2005, after we get a few things off our development list.

[titan_wireless]

Lonnie,

Any news on that Gateworks 4 Mini PCI SBC? If I bought one and tested it is there any info I could pass to you that would be helpfull in getting it running?

Thanks,
Tasos...

[lonnie]

The thing is we are on a project and cannot go and simply port to a new hadware platform. We'll take a look at these sorts of boards in the spring. Right now we are over committed and getting burnt out.

[jober]

Should this be faster?

Feature GW2347 GW2342 GW2345
Processor IXP420@266MHz- IXP422@266MHz IXP420@266MHz-

IXP425@533MHz
IXP420@266MHz-

IXP425@ 533MHz
System Memory 32-128MBytes 64-128Mbytes 64-128Mbytes
Flash Memory 8-16Mbytes 16-32Mbytes 16-32Mbytes
Compact Flash No Yes Yes
Mini-PCI Sites 1-2 2-4 2-4
10/100 Ethernet Ports 1 2 5
RS232 Serial Ports 1 2 1
USB Device Interface Yes Yes Yes
Watchdog Timer Yes Yes Yes
Digital I/O No Yes Yes
Volt/Temp Monitor No Yes Yes
Real Time Clock No Yes Yes
DC Input Voltage 5V 6-28V 6-28V
Power Consumption (Typ) 4W 3W 3.5W
Operating Temperature 0-70°C 0-70°C 0-70°C
Board Size 4.0" X 4.0" 4.0" X 6.0" 5.0" X 6.0"
Performance Benchmarks - TCP Data Rates

10/100 Base-TX
94Mbps 94Mbps 94Mbps

802.11a Turbo [1]
41Mbps 41Mbps 41Mbps

802.11b [2]
5.9Mbps 5.9Mbps 5.9Mbps

[1] Theoretical Maximum is 42.9Mbps

[2] Theoretical Maximum is 5.9Mbps

[datawork]

Engenuis is also about to release a board that looks very interesting.

They are calling it the Taurus Gateway.

http://datacom.engeniustech.com/products_detail.php?name=8

32 mb flash (16 mb standard)

32 to 128mb pc133 SDRAM

2 m-pci
1 10/100 wan port

built in
4 10/100 switch

and comes with what they are Linux BSP (board support package).

Have contacted them re: pricing

[TristramCheer]

I got a e-mail from them today, the GW2345 533mhz IXP425 with 64mb ram and 16mb flash and 4 minipci slots is $298 - $345 depending on Qty

[wittend]

Nothing is ever free. There are filters on the input and the output of the radios, but if you have ever looked at a plot there harmonics at many outlying frequencies. The more rf sources you put inside a metal box the more potential you have for noise to penetrate somewhere you don't expect. I will stand firmly by the statement that "no matter how you set them the noise floor of each is going to rise." The overall system will probably still be usable, but the connection quality on any given radio will not be as good as it would be if it were mounted in its own grounded enclosure.

I was recently working on a relay, doing major replacement of pigtails, etc. All radios were in mini-box cast aluminum enclosures. When I went to bring everything up, the longer leg (~700 meters 5800Ghz Atheros Turbo) would associate and I could see the SSID, but traffic didn't seem to flow at the network layer.

After much headscratching, I decided to climb back up and have a look in the box at the far end. I had been very careful about everything with one exception - the pigtail leading to the 2m coax & 25dbi antenna was not plugged into the radio.

Evidently the ambient RF inside the box was picked up by the end of the pigtail and proved sufficient to drive the link *almost* to the point of creating a useable connection.

I stopped worrying about the quality of my antennas on that link.

[lonnie]

Update - I ordered a dev kit and some play around boards today. We should be in heavy development by mid next week.

The first unit will be a fairly simple system that will ONLY be usable for backhauls. It will have AP, WDS, and rudimentary client mode. There will be no bandwidth control or firewall, no HotSpot and in fact none of the "features" that are cool. These features are not required for the backhaul repeaters and this will allow us to get something useful to market quickly and then we will build from that base.

Only Atheros cards will be supported in the first release. We will only support mini PCI cards that have DMA facilities, so that rules out the Prism2.5 cards. They will not be suitable for a multiple AP unit since the I/O approach limits the entire system to about 6 mbps, no matter the speed or the number of cards.

I will not speculate as to when it will be available but it is our goal to get it together quickly.

If anyone tried to push for a release date they better have their flame retarder suits on.

[fastrev]

Awesome news, I seen it on your hardware page. Thanks for the update. I am really excited about this.