Debian on Intel IOP

Intel's IOP (I/O processor) line is based on their XScale core, an implementation of the ARM instruction set. There are a number of NAS devices based on IOP chips that can run Debian. This page provides instructions about running Debian on these devices. Please note, however, that the IOP series has reached its end of life.

Debian used to support the following devices:

• Thecus N2100: this is a NAS device with a 600 MHz IOP chip, 2 SATA slots, expandable DDR RAM, 3 USB ports, 2 GBit Ethernet and mini-PCI. This device is also sold by Allnet as the ALL6500 and by Evesham as the SilverSTOR M-Box.
• IO-Data GLAN Tank: this is a NAS device with a 400 MHz IOP chip, 2 IDE slots, 128 MB RAM, 4 USB ports and 1 GBit Ethernet. Other devices from IO-Data, in particular the HDL-Gxxx, HDL-GWxxx, and HDL-GZxxx series, are very similar and might work as well.
• Intel SS4000-E: based on a 400 MHz IOP CPU, this device has 4 SATA slots, 256 MB RAM (expandable), 2 USB ports and 1 GBit Ethernet. Apparently this machine is also known as the Intel Baxter Creek SS4000-E. This system appears to be based on a design by Lanner, a company that sells the NAS appliances NS04-4100 and NS04-4110. Wouter Verhelst ported Debian to this device.

Support for IOP32x was dropped in Debian 8 (jessie).

Help

If you need any help getting Debian running on your IOP based machine after reading this installation guide and using Google, you can contact the Debian ARM mailing list.