NEMS Linux Appliance

[kevinds]

This looks interesting...

Is there anything that can be shared about it?  CPU(s)?  Ballpark pricing?

I hope it can be PoE powered..  Something that is missing in (all?) SBCs  lol

[Robbie Ferguson]

Hi kevinds,
At the moment, I am waiting on two manufacturers to send their custom-built units, and have started manufacturing my own test rig with an ODROID XU4 to see if a DIY appliance may also be an option to provide (with step-by-step guide and video tutorial).

The XU4, as you likely already know from the docs, is an 8-core SBC with 2 GB RAM and an eMMC drive for the OS. It also has 10/100/1000 and USB 3.0.

One of the appliances I'm working with is a rack-mount unit, which I'm excited about. It's quite powerful and uses SSD/M.2. It has 16 GB of RAM and can be upgraded.

The second is a passive-cooled unit with a lot of punch for a small device with no moving parts. It too uses M.2 for the NEMS deployment and an SSD for storage.

All appliances I'm evaluating have 10/100/1000 ethernet and USB 3.0 (as I have plans to add external storage as an option).

I'll have more to share once I have received the hardware. Both units should be on hand before the end of the month.

[kevinds]

802.3af/802.3at?  This is a bigger one for me..  Right now I am using a PoE splitter for my Pi3 board..  Actually using PoE splitters for a lot of non-PoE gear, just to reduce the cable mess  ;O

Rackmount is nice    My Pi is sitting on the back of my PoE switch in my rack just for a place to put it.

[Robbie Ferguson]

We are working on PoE as an upgrade option on one of the test systems. It's still in development and not a confirmed feature.

[Robbie Ferguson]

One of the appliances arrived yesterday. The second is stuck at customs (importing from Israel). Hopefully will have it on hand soon.

[Robbie Ferguson]

I now have all three appliance units on hand. Very exciting time as I begin porting NEMS to these devices. I'll be testing the performance of each, how they handle NEMS... and overall how I like each unit. From there, I'll be setting up a qualification process for NEMS-certified devices and the expansion to other platforms will begin!

NEMS 1.3.1 will see a few improvements and will be released as an img. I suspect the first "non Pi" build will be closer to NEMS 1.3.3 or 1.3.4... roughly January/February.