Hello everyone,
It has been a while since we last posted an update – but a lot has been happening behind the scenes! The Traverse team has expanded greatly in the last year, and we now have a couple of development projects on-going, including our next generation networking products.
Today we announced the Ten64, a new networking-focused board based on NXP’s Layerscape LS1088A SoC. This replaces the previously-planned LS1043 design (Five64). Due to derivatives of the Ten64 being specified for operator RFQs we haven’t been able to unveil it until now – but the community will be the first to get their hands on the platform!
New Features and Upgrades
Ten64 is a brand new design, built from the ground up for high-bandwidth wireless and wired networking, Linux development, and modern virtualization and container applications. We have taken feedback on board from NXP, network software vendors, as well as avoiding some ‘pain-points’ of our previous LS1043 design.
With the new design we are bringing some significant advancements in the featureset:
- DDR4 SODIMM instead of soldered down RAM – this provides more flexibility (from 4 GB to 32 GB) and ECC support using off-the-shelf memory.
- Eight Gigabit Ethernet ports plus two 10G SFP+ - all can be configured as an independent 'ethX' interfaces.
Some advantages of the LS1088 vs the LS1043 are:
- DPAA2 Network architecture: "object oriented" networking that allows resources to be dynamically configured
- More cores: 8xA53 vs 4xA53
- IOMMU support, for isolation and virtualization passthrough
- PCI Express 3.0
- Full DDR4 bus (64-bit) with support for ECC + higher bus rate
(2100 MT/s)
Traverse Ten64 Architecture
The LS1088 is a very innovative SoC and we ourselves have not even scratched the surface of its full capabilities. In the future, we hope to bring advances such as hardware accelerated routing and virtual switch offloading to the community. In the meantime, we are working hard to provide an excellent platform you can use today.
Enclosure Options
The Ten64 board is Mini-ITX compatible and will work both directly powered from DC and with ATX-style power supplies (via an adaptor). For networking and wireless applications, we have been developing a modular desktop case:
Note this is an initial prototype - changes for the PCB and case are already on the way.
For storage-oriented applications, we are working on qualifying various NAS cases on the market.
Next Steps
The Ten64 campaign is scheduled for October. Until then, we will update the pre-launch page on Crowd Supply as we finalize our manufacturing, enclosures, and software plans.