[CUWiN-Dev] Re: CUWIN on Meraki Mini

[Bob Keyes]

On Fri, 8 Feb 2008, David Young wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 07, 2008 at 02:29:37PM -0800, Bao Q. Nguyen wrote:
> > Bob,
> >
> > So if David can get CUWIN to compile for the Meraki Mini, which is the same
> > MIPS processor that's on the WGT63U (Atheros 2515?) is running so then
> > porting CUWIN to the WGT63U should be much simpler.
>
> According to
> <http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Hardware/Netgear/WGT634U>, the
> WGT634U is based on a Broadcom CPU.  They change the components of these
> products all of the time, so it is possible that some versions contain
> an Atheros system on a chip.

I am pretty sure they're all the same design (I know that's not typical of
WiFi APs) and use the broadcom CPU. They don't use the built-in bcm USB
1.1, but rather an external 2.0 chip. As far as I know, that OpenWRT info
on the WGT634U is accurate.

> The Broadcom platform is cool (has an IPSec coprocessor!), but it
> was not open, last time I checked.  Neither is the Atheros platform.
> It matters because supporting a closed architecture involves entails a
> lot of uncertainty and added expense, and you lose certain opportunities.
> Just for example, without documentation, we may never be able to exploit
> the Broadcom IPsec accelerator.

Hrm, perhaps enough information has become public to support it? The
WGT634U run Linux out of the box, though the software they built does kind
of suck (it runs entirely from ram!). Have you looked for info on the
IPSEC functionality? Or is it more of a problem that, if you don't know
the provenance of the information, it might be better to keep your eyes
off of it, to avoid legal problems?

> I have been recommending that people look at the RouterBOARD 1xx,
> 5xx, and 3xx series, which are based on Infineon MIPS, IDT MIPS, and
> Freescale PowerPC chips, respectively.  Decent docs for those chips
> are freely available, and the boards have great integrated peripherals
> and expansion.  On my desk, I'm running CUWiN from the CompactFlash slot
> on the RouterBOARD 153.  I don't have an RB3xx or RB5xx.

Yes, the RouterBoards are nice.