Debian on Intel's IOP lines of CPUs

Intel's IOP (I/O processor) line is based on their XScale core, an implementation of the ARM instruction set. The IOP series of chips is a particularly interesting platform to run Debian since it has a focus on storage and therefore usually offers SATA unlike most embedded systems. While many IOP chips are found in RAID cards as an accelerator, there are also a number of affordable NAS (Network Attached Storage) and SAN (Storage Area Network) devices. These devices are usually quiet, power efficient and yet fast enough for a small server running a full Debian system on disk. This page provides instructions about running Debian on a number of IOP based devices.

At the moment, Debian supports 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.

In the future, it would also be interesting to support the following machines:

• Thecus N4100: a device with 4 SATA slots, expandable RAM, 2 GBit Ethernet and mini PCI. This device is rebadged as the Allnet ALL6400, Evesham SilverSTOR XS and MicroNet PlatinumNAS Tower.
• 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 SS4000E. This system appears to be based on a design by Lanner, a company that sells the NAS appliances NS04-4100 and NS04-4110. Ard van Breemen has done some work porting Debian.
• Thermaltake Muse NAS-RAID (N0001LN): this storage solution uses a 400 MHz IOP CPU, offers 4 hot-swappable SATA slots, 256 MB RAM (expandable), 1 GBit Ethernet and one RS232 (serial) port.
• Sabio CM-4: 400 MHz IOP CPU, 4 SATA slots, 256 MB RAM (expandable), 2 USB ports and 1 GBit Ethernet.
• Newisys NA-1400: this NAS appliance is based on a 600 MHz IOP CPU, 4 SATA slots, 256-512 MB RAM, 2 USB ports and 2 GB Ethernet.

If you're interested in Debian support for these or similar devices please consider donating hardware.

Help

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