[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk on Soekris

[Kristian Kielhofner]

> Kristian Kielhofner wrote:
> 
>> Dustin Wildes wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe my point was missed.
>>> Hardware wise - a VIA MII EDEN based board will greatly outperform a 
>>> Soekris system, which is why my embedded platform is based on the VIA 
>>> hardware instead of the Soekris, because I AND my customers did want 
>>> an all-in-one system, and small offices tend to want an all-in-one 
>>> piece of equipment.
>>
>>
>>
>> Dustin,
>>
>>     Yes, a VIA Eden board will greatly outperform a Net4801.  My 
>> CL10000 is actually quite powerful.  However, several points on the 
>> mini-itx architecture that need to be mentioned:
>>
>> 1) Heat/Reliability.  Much more heat generated, my mini-itx system has 
>> three fans.  The Soekris has none (not even a heatsink).  This makes 
>> the Soekris much more reliable - no moving parts.
>>
> 
> I am using the MII 6000 (no fans) with a heatpipe to replace the 
> embedded heatsink - pushing to extruded fins.  It does get warm, but not 
> that bad.
> 
>> 2) Power usage.  All though I have yet to measure it, my mini-itx 
>> system has a 90 watt power supply (which is ATX based, btw).  My 
>> Soekris has a 12 watt power supply.  Also on another note of 
>> reliability, I trust the Soekris power supply much more than the half 
>> breed ATX in most mini-itx systems.  Yes, I do know that just because 
>> you have a 90 watt power supply you are not using all 90 watts, but 
>> the fact that the Soekris has a 12 watt power supply means that it is 
>> DEFINITELY not using more than 12 watts.
>>
> I haven't measured the power either - but we have been using the morex 
> power supplies for several months now, and no problems.  But I not sure 
> what the amount of wattage has to do with reliability?  Personally, I'd 
> rather have a board that could handle a bit more wattage if need be than 
> not have enough.  Would you say a 400watt power supply is less reliable 
> than a 250watt?

	I'm not saying that at all.  But in my years of dealing with PC's, the 
most common things to go are the HD and the power supply.  Especially 
ATX power supplies...  I feel that the mini-itx using ATX power supplies 
reduces the overall reliability of the system.

>> 3) Cases.  Have you been able to find a reasonably priced case for 
>> mini-itx that doesn't look like some cheap home theater appliance?  I 
>> haven't.  One thing often looked for (especially in the embedded 
>> space) is for the device to look like an appliance.  People are much 
>> less likely to mess with something when they don't know what it is.  
>> With a mini-itx case with upfront firewire and line-out, my 14 year 
>> old cousin would have his fingers in that case in a minute!
>>
> 
> You are right here, and they are not many good cases to choose from --- 
> YET!  :-)
> My company has already submitted plans to a few machineshops to build 
> some prototype ITX cases as we speak.  We just sent them in last week, 
> so it'll be a few weeks.
> If anyone has an suggestions on the case style or anything they 
> would/wouldn't like to see on a mini-ITX case, please speak now before 
> we hit full production.  We will be selling them to everyone, so if 
> there is something you've been wanting in a mini-ITX, email me ASAP so 
> we can look at possibly adding it to our prototype.

	Now we're getting somewhere!  I'll get to you about this off-list...

>>     When the 7501 comes out later this year there won't even be a 
>> point of "arguing" this anymore.  That board is going to be killer!
>>
> If the 7501 can perform to the degree we need, then you could be right.  
> :-)

	Hopefully I am.  At this point they will probably have a mobile Athlon 
64.  That will SMOKE a C3 (which aren't that great to begin with).

>>     Your point was not missed, but I don't think it is a good idea to 
>> include that much hodge podge functionality (web server, mail server, 
>> PBX, streaming media server, etc, etc) in one system.  Also,  most of 
>> my customers want reliability. Which the Soekris has over the ITX 
>> stuff, hands down.
>>
> It depends on your market.  Our market was for the small/home office 
> with up to about 12 users, and they would like the biggest bang for 
> their buck.  If you could sell them one piece of hardware that could do 
> everything they need, such as DSL PPPOE client, VPN, firewall, Intrusion 
> Detection, web/email services, voicemail streaming to windows media/real 
> player, plus full PBX options - it makes a nice little package.  Of 
> course, they don't have to use every feature there - they could always 
> use a WRT54G for a DSL router/firewall, and only use our appliance for 
> what they want/need, but at least they have the option/choice.

	As of now, AstLinux has everything but IDS, VM streaming, and the 
e-mail server.  It has a web server, but I would never want my internet 
facing web server to be running on the same machine as my PBX!  Ditto 
for e-mail.

	As far as VM streaming, I don't really see what the point is (unless 
you have EXTREMELY long voicemails).  If you are using wav49 you could 
probably download and playback the entire VM just as quickly.

	Other than that, it sounds like a pretty cool project!

-- 
Kristian Kielhofner