[FSUG PD] SheevaPlug Dev Kit

[Emanuele Zamprogno]

Io sono molto interessato, per aggiunta inoltro a tutta la lista una 
mail mandatami da Martin Michlmayr, uno dei principali sviluppatori 
Debian per il port Armel che da in anteprima la notizia d'inizio del 
porting del magico fumetto proprio sulla SheevaPlug!

Utilizzatori di Debian Armel unitevi!

Un pinguozz che si sta attacando alla 220 :)


Martin Michlmayr ha scritto:
 > Emanuele,
 >
 > You showed support of my Debian porting work by making a donation via
 > PayPal.  In order to show my gratitude of your support, I thought I'd
 > share some exclusive content with you that I haven't made available to
 > others yet.  This is the first time I've done this, so I'd like to hear
 > your feedback - do you find this useful or would you rather prefer to
 > simply read about it on my blog, like everyone else?
 >
 > There are two stories in this email:
 >  - Debian support for QNAP TS-119 and TS-219 Turbo NAS coming
 >  - SheevaPlug: the NSLU2 killer
 >
 > The first one has been published on my blog today, but the second entry
 > is exclusive for you - it will be released to the public on Sunday.
 >
 >
 > Debian support for QNAP TS-119 and TS-219 Turbo NAS coming
 > ----------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > The TS-119 and TS-219 devices are an upgrade to QNAP's TS-109 and
 > TS-209 devices and were announced earlier this month at CeBIT.  The new
 > TS-219 uses the same robust case as the TS-209 but offers much more
 > performance:
 >  - Marvell Kirkwood 6281 at 1.2 GHz (instead of Orion 5182 at 500 MHz)
 >  - 512 MB RAM (instead of 128 or 256 MB)
 >  - 16 MB flash (instead of 8 MB)
 >
 > I received a sample of the TS-219 today and will start porting Debian
 > to it.  As a first step, this means getting the mainline kernel to run
 > on the device and adding a kernel for Kirkwood to the archive.
 >
 > You can find images of the TS-219 at:
 > http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/qnap/ts-219/gallery.html
 >
 > You can read my complete blog entry here:
 > http://www.cyrius.com/journal/debian/kirkwood/qnap/ts-219-support-coming
 >
 >
 > SheevaPlug: the NSLU2 killer
 > ----------------------------
 >
 > I received a SheevaPlug this week, an intriguing device that packs
 > incredible power and functionality into a tiny package.  The SheevaPlug
 > is being offered at the same price range as the NSLU2 but offers
 > *considerably* more.  Riku Voipio asked the right question: "What would
 > you do with something approximately 10x more powerful with same
 > prize/size range?"  I believe the SheevaPlug is a killer replacement
 > for the NSLU2 and here's why:
 >
 >  - Marvell Kirkwood 6281 CPU at 1.2 GHz with 256 KB L2 cache (compared
 >    to a 266 MHz CPU)
 >
 >  - 512 MB RAM (compared to lousy 32 MB)
 >
 >  - 512 MB flash, enough for a basic Debian installation (compared to
 >    8 MB)
 >
 >  - Gigabit Ethernet (compared to 100 Mb) and no proprietary microcode
 >    required
 >
 >  - 1x USB and 1x SD (compared to 2x USB: the only advantage the NSLU2 
has)
 >
 >  - ... and finally: mini-USB with serial console and JTAG: while Debian
 >    on the NSLU2 works well and is stable, we regularly had users whose
 >    system would no longer boot and there was no good way to figure out
 >    why.  The serial console on the SheevaPlug actually allows users to
 >    figure out what's going on.
 >
 > I'm incredibly excited about the SheevaPlug and the first thing I did was
 > to take the device apart and look at the inside.  The results can be 
found
 > here: http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/gallery.html
 > Please note that this URL is not public yet.
 >
 > My next project will be slightly more productive: porting Debian.
 >
 > As I see it, we should support the following three installation variants
 > for the SheevaPlug:
 >
 >  - To an external USB drive or stick.
 >
 >  - To an SD card.
 >
 >  - To the 512 MB flash memory on the device.
 >
 > The first two should be relatively straight forward, but of course
 > installing to the internal flash memory is particularly interesting
 > given that 512 MB (plus compression) is enough for a basic installation
 > of Debian.  Unfortunately, installations to MTD flash are currently not
 > supported in the Debian installer but I hope we can find a volunteer
 > who wants to implement this functionality.
 >
 > My next steps are to put a kernel for the SheevaPlug into the archive
 > and to get a basic installation going.  From there we can look at more
 > sophisticated installation options and other functionality.
 >
 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > I hope you found this information useful.
 >
 > Best regards,
 > Martin
 >