I noted your salivation over the MiniPCI WiMAX card - may I suggest this is the ideal MiniPCI adapter for it;

http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info ... cts_id/723

It's model "PA-MP2" although I have had a hard time tracking down the manufacturer as easily as other PCI risers we have looked at. With the Adex Electronics PCITX4-5 and one of these, you would have a form fitting solution for the current Efika box.

_________________
Matt Sealey

Thanks, Matt, for the suggestion on the PCI to MiniPCI adapter. I like how compact it is. I will probably shop around for another riser, though, as the one you gave a link to seems pricey at $30.

So far as cases are concerned, I will eventually need to find an all-weather solution. My project is an ecosystem where the EFIKA can fill a couple of different roles. One role, for instance, will be that of a lightweight dual-head (dual user, LSTP style) internet kiosk, which is similar enough to other projects that I can address that later. No need to re/co-invent the wheels there.

The primary piece, and the one I am developing first, is a WiMax ad-hoc mesh router to provide a back-haul network in a disaster zone. I am thinking solid state storage (compact flash instead of hard drive), power-over-ethernet (PoE), weather-tight, and pole-mountable. I know weather-tight probably means no ventilation. But if possible I hope to come up with a case solution that can extend the operating temperature and humidity range of the naked EFIKA in both hot and cold environs.

Other ideas involve power. There needs to be a tremendous flexibility here. I am thinking of a DC option and perhaps a kit to use vehicle batteries (car, truck, bike, boat) from terminals or off vehicle electric (cigarette lighter adapter). I am also thinking of a solar option, if that is feasible. I am not sure about the power requirements of the radio. Running off a generator is also a must-have option. I think most have an inverter so an international A/C option will likely work for that as well.

Further musing, back on the kiosk piece... I was planning to enter a proposal for the XGI Volari project as I understand there is the possibility of the next EFIKA model having built-in video out using XGI Volari. I was going to wait and propose later, but perhaps I should write a proposal now? I am also curious if the EFIKA with video on board would support dual video. Or if not, perhaps it will still include a PCI slot. That way, we can have a dual-head card on a PCI slot adapter and the on-board video, giving a three-seat kiosk solution. That would be stellar, if the EFIKA proves capable of handling it well. Of course more USB would really help, if only on header pins. But all these options add to the base cost. I do remember hearing mention of higher RAM capacities being a production option. Three X servers on one EFIKA... umm.... We shall see. Thank god for shared libraries :)

I am open to suggestions / ideas on all fronts!

Namaste,

Tim

Johan...

I downloaded your kernel. Is there anything special I will need to know if I want to give it a spin?

Tim

Hi.

The kernel should just work. All the needed stuff is compiled into the kernel, there are no modules.
The Radeon 9250 is tested with it, dri, etc. works. I'm not sure about certain filesystems, but you can see that in the config. (I'm using nfs most of the time).

You can boot it with console=tty option to see the Linux boot sequence.


Best regards,
Johan

_________________
Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

In bulk we can get it cheaper (we are actively seeking to buy this components), but for a single unit price easily available on the web, $30 is pretty much how much these risers cost.

For a single board and a single project it is not a significant outlay at all :)
It's an option but we are still evaluating chipsets. Consider the power consumption and featureset of the XGI Volari; MPEG2 decoder, what we might call "DirectX 8" class graphics. That is basically the mid-range of what you need to run Windows XP from a graphics adapter point of view.

For a very low power client, we can obtain chipsets and solutions for graphics which cost a third of the usual price of these class chipsets, with little/no 3D or video decoding offload, which draw 1/10th of the power (think of nVidia or ATI mobile device chipsets - not Mobility Radeon, but mobile phone!). This would suit portable or battery-operated devices much better.
You will have to wait for the projects site to gain the ability to submit proposals again; since the database hiccuped last week I am still restoring backups by hand. Feel free to write it, I will post to the forums when the functionality is back online, and you can just paste it in. Since your project is not truly graphics-oriented it shouldn't really matter which card you use from the standpoint of getting a display and showing the data and mesh networking. The Volari is useful to gain HWMC MPEG2 decoding (I don't think they will be watching DVD movies while they rescue people from earthquakes :) and the 3D and HDTV (component video) support.

If you want to set up an Efika plugged right into an HDTV then the Volari right now is the easiest card to do it with; truly plug and play, where the Radeon would require recompiling of X.org, tweaking and Gatos drivers and so on. All things which make support painful. However it is not impossible :D
The next Efika should use the next version of the MPC5200B, and will aim add features to the board without significantly increasing cost or removing anything people know and love. I hope the PCI slot stays, at least, it's quite useful.

_________________
Matt Sealey

That is good to know!
True enough. I had not actually shopped around for the risers yet.. When you cat get much more complicated cards with integrated circuit chips and everything for $5 bucks, like a Realtek 8139D NIC for instance, it just "felt" expensive. But then it is a "supply and demand" issue, I suppose. A case of specialty-item-itis resulting in an enlarged priceus-maximus. Take two bulk orders and call me in the morning....
...snip... Very very true! My project would not need anything, graphically speaking, more than what would be necessary to support basic web browsing. I won't even care about streaming video, though I suppose it would be nice if it could support that. But advanced 3D graphics??? MPEG-2 decoding (or encoding)??? Nope. Not needed. At a stretch, perhaps, someone will want to somehow pipe back video shot "on the ground". But even that would be considered superfluous as far as project goals are concerned. (Maybe we'll give them HASCII-CAM, lol!)


hasciicam

Yeah, it's probably what you think it is... Jaromil develops under the RASTASOFT moniker. He makes the dyne:bolic distro. This is also where I first heard of LFS (Linux From Scratch), as dyne:bolic is (or was) developed from it. And whatever your feelings about ganga, genuine rastafarians, judging from those I have met, tend to exhibit outstanding character as people IMHO. Then again, luvdownbabylon should tell you something of my beliefs, even though I don't consider myself a rasta proper.

Now, streaming and encoding voice; that is a priority. I have every intention of giving the kiosk units VoIP capabilities.

The one and only reason I would really care about working with the XGI Volari cards, from a project standpoint, is if the EFIKA were to include the same (or compatible) chipset on it's graphics-enabled incarnation. An EFIKA with built-in graphics would, I presume, bring in a lower BoM than one with a riser and a video card. Power requirements would be lower, too, FWIW.

Well, in light of your comments about the PCI riser supply deal, I suppose a secondary reason to develop on the XGI Volari boards would be if Genesi were to have some special pricing worked out that made them a good choice for multi-head kiosks. The point, for me, is to develop with the end product in mind. That's all. Why screw around with a Radeon if I already know it won't be in the end product? As for now, though, that final design is still an open question. So the Radeon suffices.
Oh me too!! The PCI slot is a real blessing to have, IMHO. However my own project's needs would be better served by a miniPCI connection. But for the EFIKA development community as a whole, I think the PCI slot is a real winning feature. And my vote (are we voting? ;) would always lean toward what is better for the community rather than what would serve the narrow interests of my own project. We succeed or fail together.

Speaking of the next EFIKA revision, I believe I read that WiFi is being considered? That could be especially nice. I had originally intended to use a PCI card that gave me two miniPCI connections so that I could include both WiMAX and WiFi radio modules on the MESH units. WiMAX for mesh back-haul, and WiFi as a traditional local AP service allowing WiFi clients (like laptops) access to the net. Including WiFi on a next-gen EFIKA would certainly simplify my project and further reduce the BoM. But, of course, you will design with the greater EFIKA community needs in mind. So I suppose we'll all just have to be patient and see what pet features make it and which don't. (Throw in my vote for additional USB headers!)

Oh and hey!!! Thanks, Matt, for following my project postings. It is good to know you all stay so closely involved with the progress of our individual projects. Maybe it's all mushy gushy but it feels good to know people at Genesi are paying attention! I get a good sense of community here, and I appreciate that. This is my first project, and it is very reassuring.

Peace!
Tim


luvdownbabylon

Thanks, Johan. I'll give it a whirl in the near future. NFS should not be a problem for me. On the graphics front, I have a Radeon 9800 Pro which uses the R350 chipset. The 9250 uses the RV280. I presume you used the open source radeon driver, since I don't believe ATi have released their binary-blob fglrx drivers for the PPC architecture. (Am I mistaken?) In any case it should support my card just fine, as I have been using those drivers on my desktop (including DRI, AIGLX, and COMPOSITE ... read: Beryl).

Thanks again!
Tim

Hi Tim,

Yes, the open source drivers. And Beryl runs on EFIKA as well ;-)


Best regards,
Johan

_________________
Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

Sweet! That will surely be fun to play with. I really doubt it will make the cut for my project. I just don't know.. it seems to me that Beryl takes up a lot of main system memory. I guess I'll have to explore the requirements a little more. It all depends on what is "left over" after all the other requirements are met. But you would think that a WM using AIGLX would be off-loading enough to the GPU that it would make the system more responsive. And could it not use LESS system memory if pixmaps are being shunted to the GPU's RAM? I really don't know for sure.. I'd have to study it further. Part of me says that copies of all the pixmaps would still live in system memory. I have played with Beryl on my desktop (and miss it when it's gone... I esp. love the zoom feature). But I have not done any serious investigation of it's resource requirements.

Tim

It's late and I have to work in the morning... but for those interested read the project blog entry I posted last night. I found a perfect piece to incorporate into my project! SAHANA Rocks! I also talk a little bit about my research into mesh routing protocols.

Peace!

Tim