Hardware#
Target platform#
The initial hardware target is a fleet of 12 Soekris net6501-70 single-board computers.
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Atom E680 (1.6 GHz) |
| RAM | Up to 2 GB DDR3 SODIMM |
| Storage | CompactFlash + mSATA slot (CF read-only after imaging) |
| Network | 4× Intel 82574L GbE |
| Boot | PXE (TFTP + NFS or HTTP) |
| Power | DC input; PoE provided by upstream switch |
Power control#
Nodes are powered via PoE-capable switches. The controller manages port enable/disable to power cycle workers. This is the primary reset primitive — there is no software shutdown sequence workers are expected to survive.
PXE boot flow#
- Controller enables PoE on the target port.
- Node powers on and broadcasts a DHCP request.
- DHCP server responds with TFTP server address and boot filename.
- Node fetches the Buildroot kernel and initramfs over TFTP.
- Kernel boots, mounts root filesystem (NFS or in-memory), starts the worker process.
- Worker registers with the controller and awaits job assignment.
Buildroot image#
The Buildroot image is a minimal Linux system produced by cleanroom-os.
It currently boots as a PXE-oriented bzImage with an initramfs/cpio root
filesystem.
The image contains:
- Linux 4.19.204 with
e1000ebuilt in for the Intel 82574L ports - Minimal shell utilities for job script execution and debugging
- OpenSSH, NTP/ntpdate, Avahi/nss-mdns, rsyslog, CA certificates, and
ethtool - No persistent writable storage beyond ephemeral runtime filesystems
The image is built reproducibly from a pinned Buildroot configuration. Nodes always boot from the latest published image — there is no per-node configuration drift.
See Operating System for the build workflow and current image contents.