On 12/23/2015 06:28 PM, Jim Perrin wrote: > > On 12/23/2015 05:01 PM, Jeffrey Walton wrote: >> I've been lurking for a while hoping to see someone call out some >> specs, but I don't recall seeing them. My apologies in advance of this >> is a redundant question. >> >> I'm interested in inexpensive hardware to test for arm64/aarch64, but >> I'm having trouble finding them. > Everyone is. It's not as widely available as I'd like yet. > >> For example, [1] lists a X-C1 Basic dev board, but its $1495 USD [2] >> (add $1000 USD for the Plus kit). Another example is the AMD Opteron >> A1100 dev kit at $3000 USD [6]. As another example, I purchased both >> an HTC 510 Desire and a Samsung Galaxy Core-Prime because both were >> supposed to be 64-bit ARMv8 [3,4]. But after the press release and >> conversion to the US market, they arrived as 32-bit ARMv7. >> >> First question... Does Cent maintain a list of inexpensive hardware >> for testing? If so, would someone point me to it? I understand the >> list is subjective and it will become stale over time. That's a >> different problem (and a problem I wish I had). > > Not really. As the arm64 maintainer I can share the list of what I have > for testing, and what I would recommend for cheap. > > > What we build/test against currently: > > 1. APM mustang board, which you've already listed above. > 2. AMD Seattle board, which you've also listed above. > 3. Cavium ThunderX. > > These are mostly server platforms and aren't cheap for the home user. > > What I'd recommend: > > Keep an eye on 96boards.com. They have a Hikey, and will soon have a > Huskey board which should work ootb. These are both far less expensive. > > Lenovator offers a Hikey with more ram and a larger emmc. It's roughly > $100 (US). Interesting. Can you provide a URL for this board and such. A Cubietruck is ~$90. So this is a very interesting data point. > > Gigabyte's MP30-AR0 board (based on APM's mustang) should work with > CentOS OOTB as well, and will hopefully be reasonably priced. > > Soon I'll have a pine64 board as well. I'm hoping to be able to add that > to the list of things we support. > >> Second question... Or, is it possible to get SSH access to one of the >> machines provided by Applied Micro or AMD [1,6]? GNU has a compile >> farm (http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/CompileFarm) I can test with, and I'm >> wondering if Cent does the same. > > Sadly, no. We don't have enough to offer up ssh access. We will be > adding an aarch64/arm64 box to the community build service though, so > you would be able to build against the platform, but no direct ssh access. > > >> Last question... Has anyone tried using the Android TV boxes [5] for >> testing? They appear to be inexpensive (around $100 USD) and some >> appear to be ARMv8 with multiple 64-bit cores (Cortex-A53 and >> Cortex-A57). > I haven't, but keep in mind not all ARM is created equal. We've built > things up to target the server standards, SBBR and SBSA. The TL;DR there > for most folks is "boots via UEFI". Lots of the lower end boxen like the > Android TV are using uboot with custom kernel support, etc. This means > that the userspace should work, but actually booting the box would be > questionable, depending on if the vendor's done something funky with the > kernel, uboot, etc. > >> (Its definitely like Perrin said, "Hardware really is the best sort of >> gift..." [6]). > It absolutely is, and I'm hoping it becomes more generally available > early in 2016. I'd love to have a larger community who can engage and > participate. > >