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Comment by Helmut10001 | Hacker News Reader

Oh no, I love my Apu2.D4 OPNsense router! Such a versatile, robust and low-tdp platform. What are alternatives? I use a protectli [1] at my second place, but it is more expensive and feels a little bit too bulky, compared to the APU. I also have an Odroid Cloudshell 2 with XU4 as a NAS [2], but the platform is not as widely supported, e.g. without coreboot support (I still love the Odroid). The Raspberry Pi Zero WH is difficult to get these days (and not powerful enough), and I find the Raspberry lineup a little bit too fragile to hardware issues, from my experiences. My APU with open coreboot firmware worked 7 years without a single issue.

What I would wish for would be a low-cost embedded solution (< $400) with support for ECC memory.

    [1]: https://protectli.com/
    [2]: https://www.hardkernel.com/

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PC Engines APU2 offered unmatched flexibility in the sub-$200 x86 segment:

  low-power, fanless 
  open-source coreboot firmware
  Intel NICs (vs Realtek)
  open schematics
  USB, SD, SATA or mSATA storage
  ECC RAM
  GPIO
  TPM and DRTM
  3rd party cases for rack/wall mount
  supported by Linux, Xen, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, pfSense, OPNsense

They are taking orders until June 2023, for shipment in ~6 months.

Alternatives have different feature subsets, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35635900#35636898

We've been developing an industrial IoT gateway at work on top of the APU2 series, and there really is nothing quite like it. I'd add to that list support for mPCIe LTE modems. My only real complaint with the APU2 was that the story around TPM support isn't great - while they do technically support a TPM, its via an additional board you plug in, and availability is more or less non-existent. Apparently the CPU has a built in TPM but PC Engines were unable to get it working, and AMD weren't engaging with them on resolving that.

> while they do technically support a TPM, its via an additional board you plug in, and availability is more or less non-existent

It's not listed, but they used to sell Infineon TPMs for the LPC socket. Have you emailed them to ask?

Yes, I have a sample of one on my desk, but it was provided along with a disclaimer that lead times to get them in bulk are 12+ months.

Recently we analyzed the Hardkernel offer in light of OpenSecurityTraining2, and it looks pretty good but is more expensive than UP2. For example, the UP Squared Pro 7000 Series [1] is fascinating.

The pros of Hardkernel are open schematics (same as PC Engines), which is crucial if one would like to have open-source firmware like coreboot. Quite good testing documentation, transparency, and community. UP2 does not provide schematics, and their support could be better, which can be proven by reading their forums. There needs to be a sense of transparency and community building for UP2.

Of course, UP2 and Hardkernel products have other drawbacks compared to PC Engines, namely, no D-RTM, fewer NICs, higher TDP, no ECC, etc.

[1]: https://up-shop.org/ups-pro-7000-series.html

I moved from my APU2 router to a HUNSN Intel Celeron router, still fanless, 2.5Gb in 4 ports, still can run opnsense, tho I run OpenBSD on it. So I'm happy with it.

I think I picked up a similar one - haven't put it into operation yet, but seems to stay cool enough in testing.

I'm running an NA-345 from Axiomtek, which I've been very happy with. Lanner Inc also make small embedded systems for a few hundred dollars as well. Both are viable here.

No ECC and it's not x86, but for network stuff, FriendlyElec have solutions that look cool https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/product...

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