On Kickstarter: Globalscale’s $159 “Mochabin” SBC runs Linux on a quad -A72 Marvell 7040 with up to 8GB DDR4, 10GbE and 1GbE SFP, 4x GbE, WAN/PoE, 2x M.2, and an enclosure. A $199 model adds WiFi 6.

Globalscale Technologies has announced a more powerful follow-on to its EspressoBin networking board. The Mochabin advances to a 1.4GHz, quad-core, Cortex-A72 Marvell Armada 7040, compared to the earlier quad -A53 Armada 3720, and offers more Ethernet ports including a 10GbE port. The Ubuntu or OpenWrt driven board is supported by the same EspressoBin.net community, and supports a variety of firewall, networking, SDWAN, and NAS applications.

Mochabin with 5G, WiFi 6, and MikroBus Click modules installed (left) and enclosure
(click images to enlarge)

We saw the Marvell 7040 earlier this year on IEI’s DRPC-330-A7K DIN-rail computer. The 7040 has the same quad-core, Cortex-A72 CPU block as the Armada 8040, which we have seen on SolidRun’s Marvell MacchiatoBIN and later ClearFog CX 8K boards. However, the cores are clocked to 1.4GHz instead of 2.0GHz and the 7040 has fewer PCIe Gen3, 2.5GbE, and 10GbE interfaces. There is no GPU on either of these headless networking SoCs, but you get networking acceleration, including a packet processor with a security co-processor.


Mochabin (left) and Marvell Armada 7040 block diagram
(click images to enlarge)

Globalscale, which we last saw in 2019 with its Armada 3720 based Sheeva64 reboot of its SheevaPlug NAS mini-PC, has successfully launched the Mochabin on Kickstarter. The base package starts at $159, including 4GB DDR4, 16GB eMMC, 12V power supply, and a plastic enclosure. A $199 package adds a mini-PCIe card with an NXP 88W8098 SoC with dual-mode concurrent WiFi 6 (AKA Wi-Fi 6 and 802.11ax) plus Bluetooth 5.0.

A $225 package that similarly ships in May, 2022, adds an open source Linux stack provided by Sartura, enabling additional CPE and router functionality. In July, Sartura, which also supports the EspressoBin, announced a deal with IEI to provide embedded Linux support. The Sartura stack, which replaces the standard Ubuntu offering, is based on OpenWrt and mainline Linux. The software includes Replica.one, an open source build system based on Gentoo Linux.

A $450 NAS package offers a 2TB hard drive with 1TB usable storage with options for up to 6TB storage. The package also includes the Cubbit Distributed NAS platform in place of Ubuntu or OpenWrt/Sartura. Cubit offers a peer-to-peer swarm network that promises total privacy by using customer computers for storage instead of cloud servers. Cubbit uses the EspressoBin as the heart of its Cubbit Cell NAS device.

Finally, there is a $549 package with Ubuntu, power supply, enclosure, and WiFi 6 that also adds a 5G sub-6GHz module and 4x antennas. The package ships in June. The Mochabin also supports Yocto and Arch Linux.

The Mochabin provides 4GB or 8GB DDR4, with optional soldering. For storage, the SBC supplies 16GB eMMC, a SATA interface, and an M.2 slot with SATA support.

A second M.2 with up to 5G support is accompanied by a SIM card slot. A mini-PCIe slot supports the optional WiFi 6 modem. The spec list on the Globalscale website also mentions PCIe 3.0 in addition to the M.2 and mini-PCIe slots, but that is likely in reference to the M.2 slots rather than an additional interface.

Mochabin block diagram and detail view
(click images to enlarge)

As noted by the CNXSoft post that alerted us to the products, some of the specs are confusing. One example is that the standard spec list shows 10GbE with SFP+ and 1GbE with SFP. However, the $225 OpenWrt/Sartura package is said to add SFP+ technology. You also get a Marvell Gigabit PHY and switch, as well as 4x standard GbE ports and a WAN port that offers PoE input.

The Mochabin is further equipped with 2x USB 3.0, a micro-USB console port, and a MikroBus expansion connector for Click modules. You also get boot and CPU select switches, a fan header, LEDs, and 10-pin JTAG, and the images indicate a coin cell battery, probably for an RTC.

 
Further information

The Mochabin is available on Kickstarter through Nov. 14 starting at $159, with shipments beginning in May or June, 2022, depending on the package. Shipping is $20 in the US and $30 elsewhere. More information may be found on the Kickstarter page and Globalscale Mochabin page.