[hackerspaces] Possible interhackerspace telephony network using XiVO IPBX OpenHardware (beta-testers wanted)

[massoud]

Dear hackers,

We've been developing an open hardware, x86 Asterisk-based IPBX called "XiVO
IPBX Open Hardware" (sources: <http://git.xivo.fr/?s=xioh>). We would like to
develop a community around this hardware project and are interested in using
them for hackerspaces and education.

As we presented during a lightning talk at 29c3 [1], we are now entering a
beta-test period [2] before Avencall starts with series production. Because this
is an Open Hardware project it is obviously possible for a community to organize
its own production batches.

Specifications
--------------

XIOH is an x86 (Intel EP80579 SoC integrating CPU, TDM, USB, RAM, SATA, UART
controller) based IPBX that is suitable to run Asterisk and XiVO [3] or anything
else you might want on a Linux-based operating system. In terms of interfaces,
we have:
-3 GbE interfaces
-4 BRI interfaces (ISDN Basic Rate Interfaces)
-1 FXO (to be plugged to analog PSTN)
-1 FXS (to plug analog phones or systems)
-2 USB, 2 RS232 UART
-2 SATA interfaces

The hardware can support up to 50 SIP users and could have 10-20 simultaneous
calls internally or externally.

The CPU is a Pentium M running at 600MHz with 256KB of L2.
Note that the SoC also include a crypto-engine but we got rid of the Intel
provided driver for USA export control reasons.

Open Hardware and possible hackerspaces hardware production of boards
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The PCB had been design and routed with CadSoft EAGLE v6 and we have published
our design files (.sch, .brd and BoM) and software repositories [4].

The software consist of :
- An embedded microcontroller (MSP430) firmware handling the board's power
  sequence
- A CPU firmware/bootloader based on Coreboot
- Linux + DAHDI (with some of our drivers)
- Debian + Asterisk + XiVO

Again, everything here is free software :) There is still one firmware blob
running on a co-processor in the SoC though - that's one thing we couldn't get
rid of.

Idea of inter-hackerspace telephony network
-------------------------------------------

As we discussed it at the /tmp/lab and other hackerspaces, building a
interhackerspace telephony network could be great and having IAX trunks between
the different IPBX even more, ideally using open source solutions.
As we enter the beta-tests period, we could have some appliances shipped to some
hackerspaces to start building this interphony network using Asterisk (our
hardware could also host others softswitch solution)

As it is open hardware, if the need arises, we could imagine launching a
hardware production (ideally in Europe where we are based) for hackerspaces at
cost price.

So anyone interested, please tell us about it! Disclaimer: we don't know exactly
how many appliances we will be able to send out as part of the beta-testing
program, and how fast we will be able to do that. We will try to keep you
updated :)

Cheers,
Xavier Carcelle, Guillaume Knispel, Noe Rubinstein.

[1]: http://youtu.be/3V4G5ANbjmk?t=1h10m15s
[2]:
http://blog.xivo.fr/index.php?post/2013/01/10/Starting-beta-test-period-for-XIOH-power-users-and-developers
[3]: https://wiki.xivo.fr/index.php/Accueil
[4]: http://git.xivo.fr/?s=xioh