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authorDante Catalfamo2020-06-18 01:28:57 -0400
committerDante Catalfamo2020-06-18 01:28:57 -0400
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-#+TITLE: PC Engines APU Comparison
-#+DATE: 2020-06-17T00:50:06-04:00
-#+DRAFT: false
-#+DESCRIPTION: Comparison between PC Engines APU machines
-#+TAGS[]: hardware pcengines
-#+KEYWORDS[]: hardware pcengines
-#+SLUG:
-#+SUMMARY:
-
-#+ATTR_HTML: :alt PC Engines Comparison
-#+ATTR_HTML: :title PC Engines Comparison
-[[file:pc%20engines%20vs.png]]
-
-I've been looking at the [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2.htm][PC Engines APU]] line for a while. They're a
-line of medium size single board PCs with a DB9 serial connector and
-no VGA port. They also have gigabit Ethernet. Because of this they're
-often used as firewall machines.
-
-I want to get one and use it as either the home router, or an
-experimental server to mess around with. Quite a few OpenBSD folks use
-them and recommend them as OpenBSD router and server hardware. They
-aren't too expensive, have decent specs and a small physical
-footprint.
-
-One thing that's always confused me was the naming scheme, which is a
-little confusing at first. Initially there was the APU, then the APU2,
-as described on their site, which makes sense. Then the APU model
-numbers get a little confusing. They come in several variants, I'll
-list them here for context.
-
-#+CAPTION: Taken from the PC Engines website
-#+BEGIN_SRC
- apu2d0 (2 GB DRAM, 2 i211AT NICs)
- apu2e2 (2 GB DRAM, 3 i211AT NICs)
- apu2e4 (4 GB DRAM, 3 i210AT NICs)
- apu3c2 (2 GB DRAM, 3 i211AT NICs, optimized for 3G/LTE modems)
- apu3c4 (4 GB DRAM, 3 i211AT NICs, optimized for 3G/LTE modems)
- apu4d2 (2 GB DRAM, 4 i211AT NICs)
- apu4d4 (4 GB DRAM, 4 i211AT NICs)
- #+END_SRC
-
-What do the letters between the numbers mean? What is the significance
-of the numbers in the first place?
-
-Let's take the =apu3c2= as an example. The =3= here means it's version
-3 of the APU board. The APU 1 is no longer sold, so it's left out of
-the list on the PC Engines website, along with most of their
-re-sellers. The letter =c= is the revision of that board. It's pretty
-much irrelevant for comparison. You'll want to get the most recent
-one, as listed on the PC Engines website. The revisions are mostly
-minor tweaks to the board. The final number, =2=, is the number of gigabytes
-of RAM (in most cases).
-
-The APU2E2 boards have a single mSATA slot, and a regular SATA
-connector, two mPCIe slots, and a SIM tray. It comes with 2 external
-USB 3.0 type A ports, 2 internal USB 2.0 ports (header only), an SD
-card slot, and a GPIO header. It also has 3 Intel i211AT gigabit
-NICs. Using the SIM tray will remove the ability to use one of the two
-mPCIe slots.
-
-So what are the major differences between version numbers? They all
-use the same CPU, the quad core AMD Embedded G series GX-412TC running
-at 1 GHz. Most other components on the boards are the same as
-well. I'll give a description of the differences relative to the APU2
-board.
-
-The APU2D0 is the same as the regular APU2, but without a GPIO
-headers, and it has only 2 NICs.
-
-The APU3 has an extra SIM tray, and the first slot, which is mSATA
-only on the APU2, can be used as either an mSATA or USB 3G/LTE Modem
-slot. The second slot can only be used for a modem. It also lets you
-do GPIO tray swapping and failover, so you can use only a single modem
-for 2 SIMs.
-
-The APU4D2 has 4 NICs instead of 3, and the second slot is modem
-only. It has 2 GB of RAM.
-
-The APU4D4 is the same as the APU4D2, except it has dual SIM trays. It
-has 4 GB of RAM.
-
-I found a lot of this information wasn't really obvious to upon first
-reading the PC Engines website, as there's no direct comparison
-between the board, and the site relies on you flipping between pages
-to find the details. The re-seller website I looked at also didn't
-elaborate on the differences.
-
-| Board | RAM | Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Ethernet Controllers | SIM Slots | USB 2.0 | Headers |
-|--------+------+-------------+-------------+--------+----------------------+-----------+---------+---------|
-| [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2d0.htm][apu2d0]] | 2 GB | mSATA | mPCIe/Modem | mPCIe | 2 i211AT | 1 | 2 | No |
-| [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2e2.htm][apu2e2]] | 2 GB | mSATA | mPCIe/Modem | mPCIe | 3 i211AT | 1 | 2 | Yes |
-| [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2e4.htm][apu2e4]] | 4 GB | mSATA | mPCIe/Modem | mPCIe | 3 i210AT | 1 | 2 | Yes |
-| [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu3c2.htm][apu3c2]] | 2 GB | mSATA/Modem | Modem | mPCIe | 3 i211AT | 2 | 4 | Yes |
-| [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu3c4.htm][apu3c4]] | 4 GB | mSATA/Modem | Modem | mPCIe | 3 i211AT | 2 | 4 | Yes |
-| [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu4d2.htm][apu4d2]] | 2 GB | mSATA | Modem | mPCIe | 4 i211AT | 1 | 2 | Yes |
-| [[https://www.pcengines.ch/apu4d4.htm][apu4d4]] | 4 GB | mSATA/Modem | Modem | mPCIe | 4 i211AT | 2 | 2 | Yes |