# Alix / Soekris / AMD Geode and expected performance



## honk (Mar 3, 2009)

I see some users here with such hardware (some other threads, but not really performance-related). As I'm thinking about to buy an Alix (2D3) board with AMD Geode LX800 CPU as a replacement for my OpenWRT/Linksys WRT54G based external firewall, I want to hear some experiences related to the performance of this hardware. Usage is planned as:

*hostap-AccessPoint with WPA2 (MiniPCI card) for max 3 concurrent users
*Apache (mod_ssl/mod_perl) for max 3 concurrent users; some Perl scripting and DB backend (separate machine)
*Performance is needed only for forwarding traffic through this box as statefull fw (PF/IPF) from internal clients to a fileserver (80Mbit forwarding traffic/tcp would be nice).
*Snort...na better not... 

The Geode LX800 don't has a ACE engine, right? Just a HW-RNG. So what about SSL/SSH stuff (AES256)?

If no negative answers will follow until end of this week, I will spend some money for such little toy (power consumption of 5W!!!). Maybe two boxes for a small active/active cluster???


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## plamaiziere (Mar 3, 2009)

honk said:
			
		

> The Geode LX800 don't has a ACE engine, right? Just a HW-RNG. So what about SSL/SSH stuff (AES256)?



There is an AES-128 engine on the Geode LX (see the driver glxsb)

Don't know for the performance, I've got a Soekris net5501 used for storage (FTP/Samba) and running with WITNESS enabled (so slowly). It is not a very powerful machine but that works fine.


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## tajudd (Mar 7, 2009)

honk said:
			
		

> I see some users here with such hardware (some other threads, but not really performance-related). As I'm thinking about to buy an Alix (2D3) board with AMD Geode LX800 CPU as a replacement for my OpenWRT/Linksys WRT54G based external firewall, I want to hear some experiences related to the performance of this hardware.



For a simple firewall (block in, pass out) pf firewall, I did a basic test with a soekris net4801.  I don't have the stats for ALL variables or all options for SBCs, but here's what I found for a lightweight firewall on a fast dedicated circuit at work (7 T1's, ~10Mbit service).

net4801 is a 266MHz processor -- when downloading via a speed test with nothing else competing for the line; used about 25% of the processor between the interrupts and everything.  66.5MHz.

I'll be bringing in an alix2c1 this week in hopes I can steal the network long enough and do a test with it.  My boss is interested (but may not come to happen) in getting an alix2d3 unit as our router.

I'll provide anything I can -- but not forever.  If you're interested, let me know.


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