[Arm-netbook] EOMA68 switch / NAS

[luke.leighton]

On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 7:28 PM, Derek LaHousse <dlahouss at mtu.edu> wrote:
> Yo Luke,
>
> luke.leighton <luke.leighton <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>>
>> https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=38064
>>
>> joe (or anyone else for that matter) - still up for doing open
>> hardware projects?  i've got a requirement for doing a hybrid NAS /
>> switch product which has the following features:
>>
>> * gigabit network ports (e.g. 4 of)
>> * MiniPCIe 3G modem support with *dual* SIM sockets
>> * plugs in an EOMA68 CPU Card...
>> * which then turns an otherwise run-of-the-mill switch into a full NAS
>> / SoHo server
>>
>
> I'm a little confused as to what we're doing.  Is the EOMA68 just a computer
> on the side of the switch, or do you expect it to act as the wireless router
> component?
>
> If I were to guess, I expect you're talking about a form-factor like the
> WRT-54G.  The problem with this is that EOMA-68, with only a single ETH
> connection out, is not good for routing physical networks.  Still:
>
> The RTL 8366 provides the gigabit switch portion:
> http://realtek.info/pdf/rtl8366_8369_datasheet_1-1.pdf

 AH HA!  perfect.  that's exactly what i was looking for

> Except, the EOMA68 doesn't connect ethernet by GMII, does it.

 no but you can wire it to one of the RTL8212 PHYs instead.

> And as for the MiniPCIe modem, you might have decent success with a USB
> modem in the PCIe form... but you'll confuse people if you have a PCIe slot
> without PCIe connection.

 not at all.  it's actually very common to do USB-only in MiniPCIe,
specifically for USB-based low-cost WIFI cards and 3G MiniPCIe modems.


>
> This looks like the closest integration you can get is hardwiring an
> ethernet connection to the Micro-Engineering Board from a OpenWRT router.

 yes, that's the plan.

> The connection would be ONLY ethernet, with none of the host-to-host USB
> tomfoolery (apologies to Tom).

 :)

 then MDC/MDIO can still be used to talk to it.

l.