[9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Pierre-Jean <plan9@utroff.org>]

Hello 9fans !

I've discovered Plan9 several years ago, and time to time,
I read some documentation or walk throught the archive
of this list. And it seems that I'm convinced by plan9
conception.

Now, I'd like to give plan9 a real try. And since I need
some hardware for that task, I'm querying 9fans for a
recent hardware overview. Could you please answer the
following questions ?


1) UEFI bios

I know that 9load and friends can't handle UEFI bios, but
I'm guessing if it's possible to use GRUB and chainload
Plan9 when the bios is UEFI. Is that possible ?

2) Intel atom boards

I know that the supermicro X7SPA-H-D525 works with plan9.
But it becomes hard to find, while for the same price one
can have a last generation supermicro atom board.

Does anyone know if the recent atom processor (such as
C2750, C2550, S1200, N2800, D2700) works with Plan9 ?

What about the C2000 sata3 soc ?
What about the C2000 i354 ethernet controler ?

3) Arm boards

A lot of works has been done on the raspberry pi and the
trimslice, but some other arm boards are sometimes
mentionned on this list. Which are the arm boards know
working actually and does someone is working on a port that
might be soon public ?

4) Obvious hardware

More generally, what do you think is the actual obvious
hardware that one can find to build a file server and a cpu
server for home usage ?

Thanks for the answers !

Pierre-Jean.