OpenWrt developers are partnering with Banana Pi to develop the OpenWrt One/AP-24.XY router board. OpenWrt is a lightweight embedded Linux operating system that supports close to 1,800 routers and other devices. However, this will be the first router board developed directly by OpenWrt.

The board will be based on the MediaTek MT7981B (Filogic 820) SoC and MediaTek MT7976C dual-band WiFi 6 chipset. The preliminary specifications for the OpenWrt One/AP-24.XY board include a dual-core Cortex-A53 processor, 1GB of DDR4 memory, 128 MB of SPI NAND flash, 4 MB of SPI NOR flash, 2.5GbE and Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual-band Wi-Fi 6, USB 2.0 and USB Type-C ports, and a MikroBUS socket for expansion modules.

The stated goal is to keep the price of the board under $100. The OpenWrt One/AP-24.XY router board is expected to be launched in 2024. The schematics will be publicly available under an open-source license.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

UGREEN is expanding into the network attached storage (NAS) hardware market. The company is showcasing its first models in the UGREEN NASync lineup at CES 2024 and plans to launch them soon through a crowdfunding campaign.

The entry-level NASync DXP2800 features an N100 Alder Lake-N processor, 32GB of eMMC onboard storage, two SATA drive bays for 3.5-inch hard drives or SSDs, two M.2 slots for PCIe NVMe SSDs, 8GB of upgradeable DDR5 memory (expandable to 16GB), a 2.5 GbE Ethernet port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and an HDMI port with 4K display support.

The NASync DXP4800 is similar to the DXP2800 but offers four SATA drive bays, two 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports, and an SD card reader.

UGREEN’s NASync DXP4800 Pro is an upgraded version with an Pentium Gold 8505 processor, a 128GB SSD for storage, support for up to 32GB of RAM, one 10 GbE connector, and one 2.5 GbE Ethernet port.

The NASync DXP6800 and DXP880 Plus models support 6 and 8 hard drives, respectively. They are powered by Core i5-1235U processors, feature 128GB SSDs, support up to 32GB of RAM, and have dual 10 GbE network ports. These models also include two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI ports capable of driving displays up to 8K, and PCIe x4 expansion slots.

The final model, the UGREEN NASync DXP480T Plus, is a compact all-flash storage system without any hard drive bays. It features four M.2 slots for solid-state storage, an Core i5-1235U processor, a 128GB SSD, support for up to 32GB of RAM, a 10 GbE network port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an 8K-ready HDMI connector, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port. It is also the only model in the lineup with integrated WiFi.

For more information, refer to the press release.

Source: Liliputing.

OpenTofu, the open source fork of Terraform, has reached a significant milestone with the announcement of its general availability. The project, now under the Linux Foundation, is ready for production use after four months of development by over five dozen developers. OpenTofu offers a straightforward migration path for Terraform users and showcases the value of open source.

The release of OpenTofu 1.6 introduces several important features, including advanced testing capabilities for improved stability, an enhanced S3 state backend with new authentication methods, and a new provider and module registry. Additionally, the release includes hundreds of performance enhancements, bug fixes, and other improvements.

OpenTofu has gained significant traction in the community, with dozens of developers contributing, hundreds of active community members, thousands of GitHub followers, and support from corporate backers and technology partners such as CloudFlare, BuildKite, GitLab, and Oracle.

Looking ahead, OpenTofu 1.7 is set to introduce even more community-requested features that are not available in Terraform. These features include client-side state encryption for heightened security in regulated environments, parameterizable backends, providers, and modules for more readable code, and third-party extensibility through a plugin system for new state backends.

The general availability of OpenTofu marks a important achievement for the project and the open source community.

Source: Linux Foundation.

ASRock Industrial has announced 25 industrial motherboards powered by 14th gen Raptor Lake-S Refresh processors with up to 24 cores and 32 threads.

These motherboards support up to 96GB DDR5 memory and are available in mini-ITX, micro-ATX, and ATX form factors. They offer features such as support for up to four 4K displays, PCIe Gen5 interfaces, multiple Ethernet ports, and USB 3.2 Gen2x2 ports. The motherboards are designed for applications in factory automation, robotics, machine vision, smart retail, kiosks, digital signage, gaming, and security. ASRock Industrial has updated the BIOS of its existing motherboards to support the new 14th gen processors. The industrial motherboards are split into main families with either DDR5 or DDR4 memory, and various chipset options are available.

Even though these motherboards are designed for industrial tasks, they could potentially find use in a home lab setting, as well.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

AMD has unveiled its Ryzen 8000G series APUs at CES 2024. The Ryzen 8000G series processors are built on Zen 4 architecture and feature integrated Radeon 700M RDNA3 graphics. This marks the first time that Ryzen AI is included in such processors.

The Ryzen 7 8700G, offers 8 cores and 16 threads with a boost clock of up to 5.1GHz, 24MB cache, and a 65 Watt TDP. It is priced at $329 USD. The Ryzen 5 8600G provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of up to 5.0GHz, 22MB cache, and a 65 Watt TDP. It is priced at $229 USD. Additionally, there is a Ryzen 5 5500G with 6 cores and 12 threads, a 3.5GHz base clock, and a price of $179 USD. Finally, the Ryzen 3 8300G, which offers 4 cores and 8 threads, a 12MB cache, and a 65 Watt TDP. The pricing for this model has not been disclosed yet. Notably, the Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G consist of a combination of Zen 4 and Zen 4C cores.

During the press presentation, AMD emphasized the significance of Ryzen AI. Although Ryzen AI support for Linux is not publicly available yet, there are indications that it may be coming in the future.

Source: Phoronix.

Pi-hole has released updates to its FTL (v5.24) and Core (v5.17.3) components. These updates bring several changes and improvements to enhance the performance and functionality of Pi-hole.

While the development team is primarily focused on the upcoming v6.0 beta, they remain committed to supporting and enhancing v5. They understand that many users still rely on v5 and want to ensure that it remains robust and up-to-date. Consequently, certain improvements and changes developed for v6.0 will be backported to v5, providing the best experience for all users, whether they are part of the public beta or not.

The FTL changes in this release include updating the dependabot.yml file, adding pihole-FTL sqlite3 -ni, fixing a possible crash with high client activity, and implementing special domains whitelisting. These changes aim to improve the stability and performance of Pi-hole FTL.

On the other hand, the Core changes include adding “-ni” to all sqlite3 invocations in v5. This modification ensures the proper functioning of sqlite3 in Pi-hole Core.

Users are advised to read the detailed changelogs before updating to these latest versions. The FTL changelog can be found here, and the Core changelog can be accessed here.

Source: Pi-Hole.