BPI-R4 Pro design with MT7988, update version for BPI-R4, any good idea?

[Lorem_amicus (Michael Fischer)]

You missed this:

BPI-R4 Pro design with MT7988, update version for BPI-R4, any good idea?

We have already started to deal with the BE14 issue. BE19000+ePA has always been a product I wanted to make, but there are too many things to do, so I can’t take care of it for the time being.

We talked about this in some other chats. But you didn’t have to look for other posts; Simon spoke very clearly

→ “waiting for the BE19’s release” looks to me like you didn’t want to develop the software for the board… If you look at the development of the BE14, you will be waiting a long time for a working BE19, even with the BE19 hardware in your R4 .

[Stat_headcrabed (Shengyu Qu)]

@simon what about adding shielding cover for SOC, dram, switch and EMMC(and also to their back side for those high frequency circuits)? Every router does this to reduce noise.

[titoum]

would have put sfp on each side to avoid mutual heating in case of copper.

[simon]

These are designed.

and EVT samples will be available soon.

[andrewjlamarche (Andrew LaMarche)]

I would be interested in this, and even more so if a be19000 board comes along with it that doesn’t have the same issues as the be14000.

Hope it comes true!

[sinovoip (bpi team)]

sample ready

[andrewjlamarche (Andrew LaMarche)]

When you expect these to be production ready? And the be19 cards? What’s the expected price point?

Cheers!

[kierandevvs (Kieran Devlin)]

I’m interested in the R4 but I have a few questions after seeing this:

1. What’s the difference between the R4 and R4 Pro? Is it just 2.5Gig ports over 1Gig ports, and more of them?
2. What is the ETA / planned release date for the pro?
3. What price point is estimated for the pro?
4. Are there any U1 case options available? (I’m looking to rack mount next to a switch).

Thanks, Kieran.

[SpectreDev]

@Betonmischer interesting they seem to have mounting points for the emi shield around the SoC now

[RafalB82 (RafalB)]

Looks awesome! Two nvme and 2.5gb eth is killer option for me

[drozdi70 (DroZDi)]

Hi

Idea is very good but of course I have to complain

1. Why only 8GB eMMC? eMMC chips are cheap and I guess place here 64/128GB could be possible → I dont want to pay my collegue for soldering new unit later
2. Why only GPIO 26 pins? Not possible to use full 40 pins? Are we limited by MT7988A? Especially we could imagine to add some small display via SPI
3. Why not implement bleutooth remote console connection? Maybe as option. I guess no intererence with any GSM/WIFI
4. Why only 2 mPCIe slots (BE1900)? I guess there is an option to use other WIFI modules working on lower voltage? Maybe one more slot for future purpose 2.4/5/6Ghz:) Also to avoid problems with heating on 12V WIFI modules…
5. We have a lot of components here. Intressted in tests results how it works from performance view, each unit takes a small portion of memory, small portion of CPU… also high load with data transfer between 5G modemes to WIFI modules or to Ethernet/SFP etc. Are you sure not bottleneck on main board buses?

[danpawlik (Dan)]

Only this time make sure that everything works, so that there will not be a repeat like with the 2.5G PoE version - [BPI-R4] No link on 2.5G interface

[mkowalski]

Dude be careful, they have a great track of record with 2.5G ETH boards so it may rather be “killed option” than “killer option”

[CatBus]

I see a possibility for another product tier, something like a BPI-R4 mini.

Two SFP+ 10G Maybe one RJ45 or RJ45 combo port, any speed (for administration) No wifi Fanless/large heatsink design

Basically the use-case is being a router, and just a router. Given the R4 specs, it would be quite capable in this role. Lack of wifi would limit the market, but the fanless design would be extremely appealing for the market that remains.

[sinovoip (bpi team)]

what project are you want to do with this board?

[malhummada (Mohammad Alhummada)]

If the emmc will be great if 128GB

[andrewjlamarche (Andrew LaMarche)]

Why not just use NVME at that point?

[malhummada (Mohammad Alhummada)]

Nvme not booting the OS

[frank-w]

Is is a bit more work to setup the bootchain and copy rootfs to nvme. Not just flash image to adcard and being guided through complete install process.

But basicly it is possible. I have my r3 working with rootfs+kernel on nvme. R4 is basicly same.

[malhummada (Mohammad Alhummada)]

Hi Frank Since I dont have much experience how to do it so I wish to get learn how to do it At least firest step on path