Braswell support generally validated, Braswell-based SolidRun PC's mostly operational

[Matthew Dillon]

We've validated general Braswell cpu (Intel) support for DragonFlyBSD on
Braswell-based SolidRun PCs.  MMC, SDHC, USB, Graphics, and Sound appear to
work well.  The built-in ethernet is the only sticking point.  One of the
two ethernet ports works.  The second port is apparently PoE (power over
ethernet) and not a real port.   However, we are currently getting ethernet
stalls every so often on the working ethernet port and have not yet
resolved why (RE* NICs have notoriously buggy hardware).

SolidRun is an Israeli company that does IOT type stuff for enthusiasts.
 e.g. the power adapters I got in the package were actually Euro plugs, I
had to dig up an adapter to plug it into my wall :-).  I'm not necessarily
advocating them, just telling you what we tested on.

I received two units, one Pentium N3710-based (1.6 GHz with turbo), the
other based on the Atom x5-E8000 @ 1.04 GHz.  These are mobile cpus.  The
whole system sans display eats around 6W of power at the plug and has no
trouble playing video at 1920x1080.  Two video outputs.  The N3710 version
can drive 4K at 30Hz (the Atom version cannot).

4G of ram, decent browsing using Chrome but memory can be an issue so
expect to have to configure some swap (I booted from the internal MMC and
used a stubby usb stick for my swap).  3.7G of internal MMC storage (UEFI
setup needed, which we haven't automated with the installer yet but we will
soon).  Can boot from MMC, SDCARD, or USB.  Cannot boot from network.
These are enthusiast units with mobile cpus so... it ain't fast.  The Atom
is somewhat faster than the haswell mobile in the C720 chromebook though,
which is impressive.  Unlike some of the prior mobile chipsets, these cpu
cores have Turbo so, for example, the N3710 @ 1.6 GHz actually beats a 2
GHz J1900 (same 4-core/4-thread cpu topology).  I ran some basic
buildkernel benchmarks (see the N3710 and Atom x5-E8000 entry):

http://apollo.backplane.com/DFlyMisc/buildkernel.txt

-Matt
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