I’m going to say this first: I’ll purchase a couple of 2GB EspressoBIN boards, because these are absolutely awesome, probably the best single-board computers available for less than $100.
Since the pfSense developers have now succeeded in getting pfSense running (alpha version), this makes the EspressoBIN much more attractive.
-Even for me, who live in a country where the shipping and taxes ruins the ‘fun’ price of the product (pfSense is what made me decide to purchase EspressoBIN).
Now, I’ve wanted some special features, because I’d like to build a router. These things can be “worked around” on the current EspressoBIN, but if there will be a new version some day (which I think wouldn’t be far off), I’d like to let you know what I think could be improved.
1: Try not to start the Topaz switch in bridged mode. If possible, let hardware default it to non-bridged mode.
Reason: If an error happens before uboot has changed the Topaz settings, attackers on the WAN will have free access to the LAN, so they can upload spam-bots and other nasty junk to computers on the LAN.
2: As I understand it on Marvell’s site for the Armada 3700, the CPU has support for TWO Gbit Ethernet ports (both 1Gbit to 2.5Gbit): “2x Gigabit Ethernet 1Gbps / 2.5Gbps”.
If you could make the second port available, we would be able to have a rock solid router platform.
3: Thank you for making a 2GB DDR3 RAM variant available. If there was a variant with 2GB or more DDR4 or more, I would pick that one (I do need to do some memory-operations and would prefer the extra speed, but most people would probably be alright with LPDDR3).
4: It’s awesome that you’ve put up the files and information for download. I do miss a simple drawing (as .PDF) of the board and the hole positions, so I can mount it in a chassis (which has not been made for the EspressoBIN).
5: Keep the mPCIe; it’s excellent that we have the option to easily ‘fine-tune’ the board for our needs. 🙂
(If anyone else feels like they want to add some suggestions, please feel free to post below).
