The Mixtile Cluster Box is a server enclosure designed for small business applications and edge computing. It consists of four Mixtile Blade 3 Pico-ITX single board computers (SBCs), each powered by a Rockchip RK3588 processor. The SBCs are connected to the enclosure via a 4-lane PCIe Gen3 interface through a U.2 to PCIe/SATA breakout board.

The Cluster Box has been recently released by Mixtile, following the company’s work on the software and technical details. It is available for purchase on Mixtile’s website for $339, excluding the SBCs.

The specifications of the Mixtile Cluster Box include support for up to four Mixtile Blade 3 SBCs, each with up to 32GB LPDDR4 RAM and up to 256GB eMMC flash storage. The enclosure also features a control board running OpenWrt 22.03, with a MediaTek MT7620A MIPS processor, 256MB DDR2 system memory, and 16MB SPI flash storage.

The Cluster Box includes an ASMedia ASM2824 PCIe switch with four PCIe 3.0 4-lane ports. It also provides storage interfaces through four U.2 breakout boards, with four NVMe M.2 M-Key slots (PCIe 3.0 x2 each) and four SATA 3.0 ports. Networking capabilities are offered through a Gigabit Ethernet port.

The enclosure is equipped with two 60mm fans for cooling and a power button with a blue LED indicator. It is powered by a 19 to 19.5V/4.74A power supply through a DC jack. The dimensions of the Cluster Box are 213 x 190 x 129 mm, and it is made of a metal case with SGCC steel materials. It has an operating temperature range of 0°C to 80°C and a storage temperature range of -20°C to 85°C. The relative humidity ranges from 10% to 90% during operation and 5% to 95% during storage.

Users can access the Mixtile Cluster Box through OpenWrt using SSH or a web interface. The Rockchip RK3588 boards come preloaded with a customized Linux system with Kubernetes. Control of each Mixtile Blade can be done through OpenWrt using a command called “nodectl,” which allows users to list active nodes, rescan nodes, power on/off nodes, reboot nodes, flash firmware, and enter the console of a specific node.

For more technical details and a getting started guide, users can refer to the documentation website provided by Mixtile.

Overall, the Mixtile Cluster Box offers a compact and powerful solution for building a four-node server cluster with Rockchip RK3588 SBCs. With its PCIe connectivity, storage options, and OpenWrt software, it provides a versatile platform for various server, Linux, DevOps, and home lab applications.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

Orange Pi has released new versions of its single board computers, the Orange Pi 5, Orange Pi 5B, and Orange Pi 5 Plus, with 32GB of RAM. These boards are powered by the Rockchip RK3588S or RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC. The addition of 32GB RAM is the only change made to the boards. Pre-orders are currently available on Amazon, with shipping scheduled to start by October 31.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

PICMG has announced the release of the COM-HPC 1.2 specification, which includes the new COM-HPC Mini form factor. This form factor, about the size of a credit card at 90x75mm, provides access to high-speed interfaces such as PCIe Gen5, USB4, and 10GbE.

The COM-HPC Mini form factor is a smaller version of the COM-HPC standard, designed for applications like autonomous mobile robots, drones, and mobile 5G test and measurement equipment. It offers a compact solution for edge computing.

The COM-HPC 1.2 “Mini” modules come with a single 400-pin connector and various interfaces, including storage with 2x SATA ports (shared with PCIe lanes), display with 1x eDP and 2x DDI, networking with 2x 10 Gbps NBASE-T Ethernet ports, USB with 8x SuperSpeed lanes for USB4/ThunderBolt or USB 3.2, 8x USB 2.0, PCIe with 16x PCIe lanes supporting PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0, and miscellaneous features such as boot SPI and eSPI, UART, CAN, Audio, FUSA, and power management signals.

The COM-HPC Mini modules support cameras via an FFC connector with a MIPI CSI interface. The input voltage ranges from 8V to 20V DC, and the modules can handle up to 107W of input power. The dimensions of the modules are 95 x 70 x 15 mm.

While the COM-HPC 1.2 specification has been released and is available for download, it comes at a cost of 750 Euros. The information provided above is based on a press release, as access to the specification is required to obtain further details.

It is unclear when companies like congatec or ADLINK will release actual COM-HPC Mini modules. However, PICMG plans to release a “COM-HPC 1.2 Carrier Design Guide” in early 2024, suggesting that announcements may be expected later in the first half of 2024.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

GL.iNet has released the Flint2 (also known as GL-MT6000), a new AX6000 router based on the MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830) ARM SoC. This router supports VPN speeds of up to 900 Mbps using WireGuard and 190 Mbps with OpenVPN. Compared to previous GL.iNet routers like the Spitz AX and the Beryl AX, which were based on the Filogic 820 (MT7981B) CPU with transfer rates of up to 300 Mbps using WireGuard, the Flint2 is expected to triple the VPN performance.

The GL.iNet Flint2 router comes with the following specifications:

• SoC – MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with hardware acceleration engines for Wi-Fi offloading and networking
• System Memory – 1GB DDR4
• Storage – 8GB eMMC flash
• Networking:
  • 2x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports
  • 4x Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports
  • 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 with 4x external Wi-Fi antennas
    • Up to 1,148 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz
    • Up to 4,804 Mbps @ 5 GHz
    • DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) support
  • VPN – OpenVPN server/client tested up to 190 Mbps, and WireGuard server/client tested up to 900 Mbps (tests over Ethernet in client mode)
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A port
• Dimensions – 233 x 137 x 57mm

The GL.iNet Flint2 router comes pre-installed with OpenWrt 23.05 (or a fork) with Linux 5.15 and the GL.Inet Admin Panel, which is common to all GL.iNet routers. It supports four different network modes: router, access point, extender, and WDS. The router also includes features such as AdGuard Home, parental controls, and Cloud remote management.

The significant improvement in WireGuard performance, tripling the previous model’s speed, is noteworthy. While the upgrade from a 1.3 GHz dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 CPU to a 2.0 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU partially explains the increase, the main reason is likely the switch from Linux 5.4 to Linux 5.15. The Filogic 830-based router benefits from in-kernel WireGuard support introduced in Linux 5.6. As a point of comparison, the first Flint router achieves speeds of up to 500 Mbps with WireGuard.

The Filogic 830 SoC used in the Flint2 is also found in other devices, such as the Banana Pi BPI-R3 and BPI-R3 Mini router SBCs.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

Simply NUC has introduced the Zircon, a new compact desktop computer that is not only one of the company’s cheapest offerings but also a highly configurable option. Priced at $199 and up, the Zircon is equipped with a 15-watt Intel N95 quad-core Alder Lake-N processor, support for up to three 4K displays, and a 2.5 GbE Ethernet port.

The Zircon stands out among other mini PCs with Alder Lake-N chips due to its SO-DIMM slot that supports DDR4-3200 memory. The base model, priced at $199, comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SATA SSD, but both of these can be upgraded. The system can support up to 32GB of RAM and includes an M.2 2280 slot for PCIe Gen 3 NVMe or SATA solid-state drives, as well as a 2.5-inch bay for a hard drive or SSD.

In terms of connectivity, the Zircon features an Intel AC7265 wireless card that supports WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0. The system has a variety of ports, including 2 HDMI 2.0, 1 USB 3.0 Type-C with DisplayPort Alt Mode, 4 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 2.5 GbE Ethernet (Intel i225-V), 1 3.5mm headset jack, and 1 microSD card reader.

Overall, the Simply NUC Zircon offers a compelling option for those seeking a mini PC with a QuickSync enabled processor and 2.5 GbE Ethernet interface, making it suitable for applications such as media servers.

Source: Liliputing.

The PALMSHELL NeXT H2 is an affordable micro server and single-board computer (SBC) powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded R1505G processor. It offers impressive networking capabilities with two 10GbE SFP+ cages and one 2.5GbE RJ45 port. The system also supports up to 32GB of RAM and has storage options including an M.2 NVMe SSD and two SATA drives. It features wireless connectivity options such as WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and the possibility of adding a 4G LTE or 5G module. These network features make it an interesting option for various homelab uses. Theoretically, the device could support ECC memory as the Ryzen Embedded R1505G has such support, but this is not mentioned in the specifications for the NeXT H2 specifications, although it is mentioned in the specifications for the CPU. It should be noted that such support also depends on motherboard and firmware, not just on the CPU.

The system is equipped with a customized copper heatsink and a 3000 RPM PWM speed control fan for efficient cooling. It can be powered by a 12V to 19V DC power supply. The PALMSHELL NeXT H2 is designed to support multiple operating systems, including Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora, Debian, OpenWrt, Windows, pfSense, and ROS.

The SBC without memory, storage, or wireless connectivity starts at $199. The barebone model with a metal enclosure is priced at $249. Two models with 8GB RAM/256GB SSD and 16GB/512GB configurations, along with the Intel AX210NGW WiFi 6E/BT 5.2 module, are available for $299 and $349, respectively. Power supply is not included with any of the options.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.