Arctic Tern user manual posted

[AdamJoseph]

https://wiki.raptorcs.com/w/index.php?title=File:Arctic_Tern_Users_Guide_Version_1.00.pdf

takemymoney.jpeg (literally... I would've bought a Lattice Versa back when that was the dev platform, if they hadn't become unobtanium...)

Way to go RaptorCS!  This thing fixes my only serious gripe with the Talos II platform.  And the way it fixes it -- using an FPGA, which is totally impractical to backdoor on a large scale -- is total genius.

[Corvidae]

Not only that, it seems like Arctic Tern itself was launched - https://raptorcs.com/content/AT1PC2/intro.html
(module and carrier card also sold separately, the link is to the bundle)

Interested to see what people do with it!

[Woof]

I saw the Twitter post from RCS and this is great news, but I didn't find that much info. I did read that the Kestrel BMC wasn't yet running on the TalosII, from here:

https://gitlab.raptorengineering.com/kestrel-collaboration/kestrel-litex/litex-boards/-/blob/master/README.md

"Similarly, the Talos II mainboard should be able to be utilized as the host, but Raptor has not yet tested Kestrel on Talos II."

And my understanding is: I'd need the entire BMC kit (PCIe carrier and Arctic Tern module) to have a BMC replacement? I guess I need to free up a PCIe slot...

[MPC7500]

No. A PCIe slot is not mandatory
https://twitter.com/RaptorCompSys/status/1548097582630445058

[Woof]

Ah, okay. I have space near the TPM connector, but the lowest PCEe slot is blocked by the graphics card.

[MPC7500]

Same here. But for me it's way too expensive for only speeding up the boot process.

[Woof]

Yup, it's a big pile of cash, but for my tinkering machine I can kind of justify it to myself...

[AdamJoseph]

Same here. But for me it's way too expensive for only speeding up the boot process.

I agree.  But I think it's better to think of Arctic Tern as a dev board rather than the final "make the boot fast" commercial product.

Although the software/gateware may not currently support it, the Arctic Tern was clearly designed with a lot of other neat features in mind (*).  It's priced with margins appropriate for a low-volume development board.

I can definitely see a future stripped-down bare bones "just speed up the boot process" version consisting of just the AT1MB1, the FSI adapter, and a $10 adapter PCB.  The expensive component on the AT1MB1 is $73 if you buy a whole tray of them.  Note also that DigiKey is sold out of *all variations* of that chip, so Raptor likely needs to cover their entire NRE out of whatever allocation they were able to get from Lattice -- I wouldn't be surprised if this was as small as 100 chips.

Anyways, I ordered one, since I want to use it for development purposes.  I'm totally okay with the pricing for that purpose.  OpenBMC is an nice piece of software, but we shouldn't be forced to use something that is so heavyweight.  I'd like to help with the task of offering a leaner option.

(*) I have some wild speculation on why there are two module slots... especially if they can run from a common clock.

[Woof]

I have some wild speculation on why there are two module slots...

Wild speculation is always good!

[MPC7500]

I agree.  But I think it's better to think of Arctic Tern as a dev board rather than the final "make the boot fast" commercial product.

Although the software/gateware may not currently support it, the Arctic Tern was clearly designed with a lot of other neat features in mind (*).  It's priced with margins appropriate for a low-volume development board.

I can definitely see a future stripped-down bare bones "just speed up the boot process" version consisting of just the AT1MB1, the FSI adapter, and a $10 adapter PCB.

Absolutely! No blame from my side. A development board is for developers. I'm also hoping for a striped-down version in the future. It was also the right decision to release the DB first.

[Borley]

No. A PCIe slot is not mandatory
https://twitter.com/RaptorCompSys/status/1548097582630445058

Okay, so one needs to consider cable length skew. For some reason I thought that the FlexVer port was going to be used for this add-in. Maybe it was just wishful thinking since my Blackbird PCIe are all occupied.