"With the popularity of mobile devices, there have been a variety of equipment that can be internet access. Our data is more fragmented, and the data stored in various devices and backup is a headache. Put the data from time to time The leakage network disk / cloud disk is not guaranteed and not safe. The mobile hard disk is used is too inconvenient. If there is a private cloud storage, it is safe and portable to access the same data, back up our important data What is the unity of multi-screen, isn't it very ideal? "There is a market", in fact, the market is endless based on "router + storage", no matter whether it is a manufacturer, or consumer is not fatigue. Today, I've recommended a heavyweight high-rate transfer private cloud storage program - based on Marvell Armada 3700LP (88F3720) program (Click here to purchase this development board).
Espressobin development board
The Espressobin development board is a network computer platform for engineers' development assessment, e-enthusiast DIY, which is designed by GlobalScale, is different from the open source hardware boards of our common Raspberry, BeagleBone Black, Espressobin equipped with powerful networks and Storage interfaces are suitable for applications that are typically ignored by other boards, such as home cloud storage, streaming, and icon, etc. mentioned above.
(MARVELL ESPRESSOBIN Trial Application Application)
In addition to the rich interface of its own onboard, the Espressobin development board has also reserved GPIO expansion interfaces available for DIY or secondary development, playability is very high, and the shape of the board is shown in the following figure, the whole circuit board size is 100mm x 72mm There is no adult slap size, very delicate.
Detail map of the board
USB2.0 / LAN / WAN / USB3.0 interface
DC Jack / JTAG / Microusb / SATA HDD / Reset
Two 46pin GPIO extensions include: I2C, GPIO, PWM, UART, SPI, MMC, etc.
Espressobin development board Hardware block diagram:
(Click on the picture to enlarge)
Espressobin Try Board Resources:
Marvell Armada 3700LP (88F3720) Dual-core ARM Cortex A53 processor, frequency up to 1.2GHz
1GB DDR3, 1 SATA interface, 1 Micro SD card slot, 4GB EMMC (optional, board reservation Footprint)
Integrated 1 Topaz Network Exchange Chip
2 Gigabit LAN ports 1 Gigabit WAN port RJ45 interface
1 MiniPCIE slot, support wireless WiFi / BLE peripherals
1 USB 3.0,1 USB 2.0,1 Micro USB port
2 46PIN GPIO expansion interfaces can be used to connect I2C, GPIO, PWM, UART, SPI, MMC and other devices
Reset button, JTAG interface, 12V DC jack, or 5V power supply via Micro USB port
From the above brief introduction, espressobin is a high-performance 64-bit dual-core network computing platform. Based on the latest ARMV8 architecture, Espress IT is based on the latest ARMV8 architecture. It adopts high-efficiency dual-core Cortex-A53 processor, which satisfies performance requirements and ensures operations. Low power consumption, suitable for long-term uninterrupted power supply, specific distribution of onboard resources can be referred to as shown below.
The application of the ESPRESSOBIN development board is basically a combination of "smart router + private cloud storage", so all resource peripherals are basically close to these two fields. In addition to the MicroSD card, the board can expand the EMMC storage, but also support USB 2.0, USB3.0, and SATA HDD interface extension large-capacity storage; router, espressobin adopts high-rate Ethernet program Marvell Armada 3700LP (88F3720) + Ethernet The combination of switches 88E6341 and is equipped with two 512MB of DDR3 memory particles, and the total 1GB of operation is high to the mainstream of the current market in the current market. Router scheme.
There is also a SPI Flash memory on the back of the EspressSobin development board, mainly for storing the U-boot files launched by Espressobin, and the system image is currently starting through an external MicroSD card, of course, the board also reserved EMMC storage interface. , Provide different options for engineers needed.
Although we see hardware peripherals on boards are very rich, in fact, all resources are basically relying solely on Marvell Armada 3700LP (88F3720) + Ethernet switch 88E6341 This combination scheme is extended, which can be imagined, whether it is chip The integration of itself is still the integrated function, which is this for this way?
Marvell Armada 3700LP (88F3720)
Armada 3700LP (88F3720) is a system-level chip (SOC) solution for Marvell's latest network, storage, and computing applications, not only as ARM Cortex-A53 processor as currently mainstream smartphones (both Performance and power consumption, at 1 watt power up to 7,000 Coremarks, and integrated high-speed I / O, such as USB 3.0, SATA 3.0, PCI-Express 2.0, and 2.5 GbE (NBASE-T).
ArMADA 3700LP SOC system block diagram:
(Click on the picture to enlarge)
Main features of the Marvell Armada 3700 series:
2 Gigabit Ethernet 1Gbps / 2.5Gbps
SGMII / HS-SGMII / RGMII
MARVELL NBASE-T transceiver
Compatible with XHCI v1.0 USB 3.0 host / device
USB 2.0 host
PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 (RC or EP)
SATA 3.0
DMA, 2 high bandwidth DMA / XOR / CRC engine
Flash and peripheral I / O, including 2 SDIO 3.0, SPI, UART, GPIO
Integrated power switch for dynamic shutdown
Dual-core ARMV8 CORTEX-A53 CPU
CPU kernel running speed up to 1.2 GHz
Certified via FIPS-140
32 KB instructions and data 4 channel groups connected L1 cache, with parity / ECC protection
High bandwidth, low delay IO cache consistency
High-speed 8/16-bit DDR3 / 3L / DDR4 DRAM memory controller
Enhanced low delay memory controller, support event reordering, centralized writing, and data prefetch engine
High-performance security uninstallation engine, including IPsec, SSL, DTLS, and IKE
Compatible with DRM's ARM TrustZone architecture hardware
Enhanced security boot process, integrated disposable programmable (OTP) memory
From the introduction of Armada 3700 So, in addition to integrating numerous resources, it is most interested or expected to integrate two Gigabit Ethernet support 2.5 GBE (NBase-T), but unfortunately, espressobin development The board does not implement the 2.5Gbps Ethernet communication program, speculative is probably due to the results of practicality, cost, and power consolidation, such as domestic telecommunications not long before the 1000M household broadband, 2.5Gbps Ethernet program practical Sex also needs to experience a long time.
Marvell Ethernet switch 88E6341
Marvell 88e6341 is a Ethernet switch used by Armada 3700 SOC, of course, its characteristics, not only integrates 4 gigabit Ethernet PHY, a RGMII / MII / RMII interface, there is another one A 1SerDes / SGMII interface for 2.5Gbps / 1Gbps rate can be supported.
Familiar with FPGA's friends probably listened to Serdes, ie English Serializer / DeSerializer, different from RGMII / MII / RMII these parallel signals, Serdes mainly rely on serial signal transmission In the transmitting end, the transmitting end is first changed to a high-speed serial signal, and the high-speed serial signal is converted into a parallel signal at the receiving end. Obviously, the advantage of this interface is to reduce the pin, reduce the wiring conflict, but actual implementation requires very high requirements for the accuracy of the device, and cost is also a problem.
So, in synthesis, Armada 3700 (88F3720) + Ethernet switch 88E6341 This program does not fully play the potential of this SOC on the Espressobin development board, personal thinking designer is still conservative, this is inevitable to make people Some regrets. Personally think that it is really necessary to play this combination, and the hardware design of the following figure is worth reference.
However, as an open source network computer platform, Espressobin is still there in this field, and it can be tossed place, whether it is an engineer or an electronic enthusiast, can be carried out two times on this basis. Or do DIY, achieving many applications, such as:
NAS-SATA-Wi-Fi, by connecting the SATA interface of the platform to the hard disk, you can stream via wireless or wired network
Video surveillance, use the old USB camera, connect them to Espressobin and transfer the video stream directly to your computer, turn them into low power IP cameras
Plex media server, providing streaming media services from hard drive or U disk from hard drive or U disk via wired or Wi-Fi network
Stack switches, create an efficient storage unit by connecting storage and Ethernet. Computer cluster for implementing Torrent server applications
The IoT gateway, connects Lora, Ble, ZigBee, Zwave and other protocols through various interfaces supported by the platform, and turn Espressobin into an IoT gateway.
Used
Understand the basic hardware situation of Espressobin, actually calling. Although the board can be powered directly through the McIrousb interface, Espressobin is still an intimate equipped with 12V / 2A power adapter, which is very good to solve the power supply problem of external hard drives, very good.
However, there is a little bit to vomiting, and there is no indication of the WAN port with the LAN port. There is no different color distinction. The first use or check the information to determine - close to the USB3.0 interface RJ45 port is WAN mouth.
Espressobin's MicroSB interface also has the function of USB to serial port, of course, first install the driver, drive is the PL2303 USB to TTL serial port driver, online casually, it is not a problem.
The installation is complete to view the startup log of EspressSobin via the serial port.
It can be seen that the 1GB of shipping and the CPU are the clue of 1GHz. In fact, there are several small episodes here. The first I get only to support the 512MB of freight and the CPU limit is 800MHz. However, after the problem with Marvell, I will get the patch package to solve this problem. Marvell's technical support is timely, but according to the author's point of view, the CPU has excess, in actual use, If it is necessary to balance power consumption, even if it is limited to 800MHz, it is completely enough. Of course, as a enthusiast or electronic enthusiast, I like to toss, the higher the clue, the better, and according to the feedback from the author, 1.2GHz The frequency version of the UBOOT Marvell team is also in the test, and it is estimated that it will be officially launched soon, which is a good news for DIY enthusiasts.
The ESPRESSOBIN development board runs the Ubuntu based on the Linux Kernel 4.4.8 version.
Dual-core 64-bit processor
Configuring IPs can realize normal online surfing.
Installing Multithreading Test Tools Sysbench, this tool can maximize the limit performance of the CPU, and the test content is calculated by calculating the time used in 0 to 20,000.
Install Sudo Apt-Get Install Sysbench
Because the Armada 3700 belongs to a dual-core processor, two-core performance and single nuclear performance are mainly tested. (The following test results are based on CPU @ 1GHz + 64-bit Ubuntu system)
Dual-core double thread test results, for about 18 seconds
Single-core single-thread test time for approximately 36 seconds
From the test results of Sysbench, the performance of dual-core is doubled, and it is very conforming to the actual situation. However, if you only look at this aspect, you may only get a "original" result, and there is nothing shocked, that is, everyone often said, "There is no contrast, there is no harm." However, the author wants to tell you that the starting dual-core and single core test results are 413 seconds and 825 seconds, as shown in the following two figures, there is a picture of the truth.
And now where is the huge improvement from? After investigation, I found that the environment tested by the author was equipped with 800MHz Uboot and 32-bit Ubuntu systems, and the advantage of this 64-bit processor on Espressobin was not fully utilized. Therefore, the adaptive Uboot software is provided through Marvell technical support. And the system, the thorough test results are shocking as described above, and the performance of the calculation is 22 times near the performance. What is this concept? With the current popular SOC, the new chip can be improved than the above performance.50% is already a huge span. From this point of view, good hardware needs to be equipped with the best performance, and good software support is a company follow-up strength guarantee, Marvell is indeed very good in this respect.
Espressobin as a router + private cloud storage hierarchy, Ethernet, and NAS SATA performance testing is essential.
Network performance test
Connect the Espressobin development board to the PC side, using the tool network performance test tool IPERF.
Transfer from the Espressobin development board to the PC side, the average rate is in 936Mbit / s
Transfer from the PC to the Espressobin development board, the average rate is 910 mbit / s.
NAS SATA Performance Test
Connect the espressobin development board and Windows PC, use the Robocopy tool to copy files.
Copy file from the Espressobin development board to Windows PC, with an average rate of 103MB / s
From the Windows PC copy file to the Espressobin development board, the average rate is 95Mb / s.
From the above test results, Espressobin development boards are very good regardless of network performance, NAS SATA's transmission performance is very good, some regrets due to restrictions on hand fittings, some tests cannot be carried out, such as Minipcie WiFi or Bluetooth Module test, onboard EMMC storage test, etc. If you have these resources in hand, you can also interested in the Espressobin development board, which can participate in the next Marvell board free application, numerous features waiting for you to verify.
summary
Espressobin development board with Marvell Armada 3700 (88F3720) + Ethernet switch 88E6341 is a product of a smart router and private cloud storage, which not only has the performance of the current mainstream router, but also onboard rich GPIO expansion interfaces available for electronics Lovers or engineers do DIY or secondary development, with rich storage interfaces to achieve large-capacity private cloud storage, large data servers, Internet access, Internet video surveillance, etc. Moreover, the Espressobin development board does not represent the ultimate Armada 3700 (88F3720) + 88E6341 program of Meiguang, this combination can achieve a higher rate of 2.5Gbps communication scheme, but due to third-party designers, considering power consumption and practicality. Factors are finally positioned for 1Gbps, integrated, Espressobin at this time is more suitable for players, electronic enthusiasts toss, and the lowest price of only 39 dollars, recommended to buy! Of course, if you are interested in Espressobin development board, you can also pay more attention to the activities of the pair of panels. There will be a few sets of Espressobin free gifts, and look forward!
MARVELL ESPRESSOBIN Trial Application Application
Related Links:
Espressobin official website (information, purchase)
Espressobin Wiki
Original declaration: This article is originally created by the panel network, declined! "
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