Talk:MIPS64 - Revision history

Darkfader at 21:24, 21 July 2025

2025-07-21T21:24:13Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:24, 21 July 2025
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	So those are also fancy build hosts.		So those are also fancy build hosts.

	Almost all older UniFi devices and 'security gateways' are MIPS based, but only specific models have so many cores that they'll be really interesting.		Almost all older UniFi devices and 'security gateways' are MIPS based, but only specific models have so many cores that they'll be really interesting. All Ubiquiti kernel modules are proprietary (/lib/modules/<kernel>/extra), that includes the fan control.

			==== Untested ====

			SonicWall also used MIPS/Octeon CPUs.
			It appears the high-end line could be cheap and useful. It's unclear whether these are OcteonII or OcteonIII


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	The E10k series are 4U or 5U (silver, so in fact shiny)		The E10k series are 4U or 5U (silver, so in fact shiny)

	~~==== Untested ====~~

	~~SonicWall also used MIPS/Octeon CPUs.~~
	~~It appears the high-end line could be cheap and useful. It's unclear whether these are OcteonII or OcteonIII~~

	=== Not so good models ===		=== Not so good models ===

Darkfader at 21:23, 21 July 2025

2025-07-21T21:23:01Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:23, 21 July 2025
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	Almost all older UniFi devices and 'security gateways' are MIPS based, but only specific models have so many cores that they'll be really interesting.		Almost all older UniFi devices and 'security gateways' are MIPS based, but only specific models have so many cores that they'll be really interesting.


			Model: 9200 9400 9600 E10200 E10400 E10800
			Processing cores: 24 32 32 24 48 96

			The 9200-9600 series are 1U (black)
			The E10k series are 4U or 5U (silver, so in fact shiny)

			==== Untested ====

			SonicWall also used MIPS/Octeon CPUs.
			It appears the high-end line could be cheap and useful. It's unclear whether these are OcteonII or OcteonIII

	=== Not so good models ===		=== Not so good models ===

Darkfader: /* MII */

2025-05-17T06:32:24Z

MII

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:32, 17 May 2025
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	There's a very bad interface into ethtool, meaning you can pretty much forget setting link speeds etc. That ball has been dropped a decade ago.		There's a very bad interface into ethtool, meaning you can pretty much forget setting link speeds etc. That ball has been dropped a decade ago.
			Interface stats are available via /sys

Darkfader: /* Complexity */

2025-05-17T06:31:48Z

Complexity

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:31, 17 May 2025
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	Accordingly, it makes sense to not have the architecture supported by default.		Accordingly, it makes sense to not have the architecture supported by default.

			=== MII ===

			There's a very bad interface into ethtool, meaning you can pretty much forget setting link speeds etc. That ball has been dropped a decade ago.

Darkfader: /* SATA */

2025-05-17T06:29:56Z

SATA

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:29, 17 May 2025
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	The SATA interfaces are unstable with many modern SATA 3/3.1 disks. Intel SSDs have worked like a charm for me. (I tested S3500-S3520)		The SATA interfaces are unstable with many modern SATA 3/3.1 disks. Intel SSDs have worked like a charm for me. (I tested S3500-S3520)
			At least per the kernel config, SATA port multipliers are supported. (untested)

	==== LBU / diskless mode ====		==== LBU / diskless mode ====

Darkfader: /* Availability */

2025-05-17T06:28:27Z

Availability

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:28, 17 May 2025
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	==== Availability ====		==== Availability ====

	There's ~~10000~~'s of SmartNICs based on this CPU that are being obsoleted at various cloud providers.		There's 100000's of SmartNICs based on this CPU that are being obsoleted at various cloud providers.
	They're very cheap to obtain, I've seen them as low as $6 for a 25G model with 16Cores/16GB Ram, and even the more expensive offers are a good value. There's even an OpenWRT user who just was silly about it and bought 50 for $2 each.		They're very cheap to obtain, I've seen them as low as $6 for a 25G model with 16Cores/16GB Ram, and even the more expensive offers are a good value. There's even an OpenWRT user who just was silly about it and bought 50 for $2 each.

Darkfader at 06:28, 17 May 2025

2025-05-17T06:28:06Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:28, 17 May 2025
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	A notable option is the old '''UniFi USG-X-8''', which has been overtaken by the UDM-Pro in many setups.		A notable option is the old '''UniFi USG-X-8''', which has been overtaken by the UDM-Pro in many setups.
	In those old gateways you'll find... ~~I don't recall, but _many_ cores~~ and ~~at least~~ 32GB ~~ram~~.		In those old gateways you'll find... a 16-core CN7360 and 16GB ram. It has been tested to hold 32GB.
	So those are also fancy build hosts.		So those are also fancy build hosts.

Darkfader: /* Shiny Boxes */

2025-04-28T11:08:49Z

Shiny Boxes

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:08, 28 April 2025
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	In those old gateways you'll find... I don't recall, but _many_ cores and at least 32GB ram.		In those old gateways you'll find... I don't recall, but _many_ cores and at least 32GB ram.
	So those are also fancy build hosts.		So those are also fancy build hosts.

			Almost all older UniFi devices and 'security gateways' are MIPS based, but only specific models have so many cores that they'll be really interesting.

			=== Not so good models ===

	Many other network devices come with those chips, but are not expected to be trivial to turn into a dev system. Notable examples are i.e. the 3U '''Palo Alto''' boxes that have at least 3 Octeon processors along with an x86_64 control plane node.		Many other network devices come with those chips, but are not expected to be trivial to turn into a dev system. Notable examples are i.e. the 3U '''Palo Alto''' boxes that have at least 3 Octeon processors along with an x86_64 control plane node.

Darkfader: /* Good models */

2025-04-28T11:07:58Z

Good models

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:07, 28 April 2025
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	Others have PCIe, even host support, so you don't need a PC around them to run.		Others have PCIe, even host support, so you don't need a PC around them to run.

	There's also embedded boards:		There's also

			=== embedded boards ===

	* by Oracle for a "boarder network controller" (4x10G has 2x32 Core/64GB)		* by Oracle for a "boarder network controller" (4x10G has 2x32 Core/64GB)
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	* There's official dev boards, where you'd want the ones between CN68xx and CN78xx one mostly		* There's official dev boards, where you'd want the ones between CN68xx and CN78xx one mostly
	* There's boards that are more custom with undocumented connectors but come with insane performance capabilities (AdvanTech Packetarium, usually 2x10g or 4x10g but also often with FPGAs onboard etc.)		* There's boards that are more custom with undocumented connectors but come with insane performance capabilities (AdvanTech Packetarium, usually 2x10g or 4x10g but also often with FPGAs onboard etc.)

			=== Shiny Boxes ===

			A notable option is the old '''UniFi USG-X-8''', which has been overtaken by the UDM-Pro in many setups.
			In those old gateways you'll find... I don't recall, but _many_ cores and at least 32GB ram.
			So those are also fancy build hosts.

			Many other network devices come with those chips, but are not expected to be trivial to turn into a dev system. Notable examples are i.e. the 3U '''Palo Alto''' boxes that have at least 3 Octeon processors along with an x86_64 control plane node.

	=== Complexity ===		=== Complexity ===

Darkfader: /* It's complicated */

2025-04-28T11:05:00Z

It's complicated

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:05, 28 April 2025
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	Accordingly, it makes sense to not have the architecture supported by default.		Accordingly, it makes sense to not have the architecture supported by default.


			==== FPU ====

			The Cavium Octeon III stuff generally has 'hardfloat' aka FPUs, but Alpine doesn't yet use that.
			I'm working on rebuilding everything in a mips64-octeon-musl-hf target or so.
			It's not horribly bad and there's no actual technical blockers to it.
			The wiki says that alpine didn't manage to do link in hardfloat mode, but I think this can be solved by just throwing many more CI toolchains at the problem.

			==== Endianness ====

			There's a constant forth-and-back in the communities around this.
			The cards can boot in both little and big endian modes and the SDK allows building both ways.
			I feel there's no stable result until both modes build well, but I'm gonna stick with big endian as they is the alpine 3.14 setup and the demo toolchains default to it.

			==== SATA ====

			The SATA interfaces are unstable with many modern SATA 3/3.1 disks. Intel SSDs have worked like a charm for me. (I tested S3500-S3520)

			==== LBU / diskless mode ====

			The Octeon II and better totally support using named memory blocks, as such boot to RAM is very feasible. There's discrepancies in how the memory blocks are passed in examples and in how alpine had expected to use them. This is only a problem of semantics as far I could see, but will need some help Alpine devs to solve.
			LBU mode is perfect for those devices that already have an eMMC / NAND / PCIe SSD. The eMMC does not read super fast, reading a compressed apkovl would improve matters for this. Up to a certain size, it could also be loaded via PCIe and simplify the boot process a lot.

	==== architecture revival feasible ====		==== architecture revival feasible ====