Network appliance comes with or without fans

By Jonathan Angel
2010-06-04

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Acrosser announced two compact network appliances, each with six gigabit Ethernet ports and Mini PCI expansion slots. The fan-cooled AR-N5205A offers 1.0GHz or 1.5GHz Celeron M processors, whereas the fanless AR-N5205FL adds a low-end 600MHz version and a high-end 1.8GHz Pentium M, the company says.

Similarly named and similar-looking, the AR-N5205A and AR-N5205FL are said to use the same chipsets (Intel's 910GMLE northbridge and ICH6M southbridge). In addition, each provides much the same functionality: six gigabit Ethernet ports (two with LAN bypass), two external USB 2.0 ports, a VGA output, and a DB9 port for a serial console.

Acrosser's AR-N5205A

However, the AR-N5205A (above) features CPU and system fans, and is offered with either 1.0GHz or 1.5GHz Celeron M processors. The AR-N5205FL, which is wider and a little taller (presumably for thermal reasons), is said to run fanlessly and is offered with two additional CPUs: the 600MHz Celeron M and a 1.6GHz Pentium M.

Apart from the above, another difference we noted between the AR-N5205A and the AR-N5205FL -- we guess the "A" stands for "air" and the "FL" stands for fanless -- is that the former has two internal pin headers for USB 2.0 ports, whereas the latter has four. Also, the A's data sheet highlights a watchdog timer, while the FL's data sheet highlights 8-bit digital I/O plus pin headers for a PS/2 keyboard and mouse.

Acrosser's AR-N5205FL

Both devices are said to include CompactFlash slots, dual SATA ports, single brackets for a 2.5-inch hard disk drive, and Mini PCI slots. Both also have 512MB of DDR2 memory preinstalled, plus dual SODIMM sockets that accept up to 2GB, Acrosser says.

Features and specifications listed for the AR-N5205A and AR-N5205FL include:

Processor -- 1.0GHz or 1.5GHz Celeron M (both); 600MHz Celeron M or 1.8GHz Pentium M (AR-N5205FL only)
Chipset -- 910GMLE northbridge and ICH6M southbridge
Memory -- 512MB of DDR2 RAM standard; dual SODIMM slots accept up to 2GB
Storage -- CompactFlash slot; bay for 2.4-inch HDD
Display -- VGA port
Expansion -- 1 x Mini PCI slot
Networking -- 6 x gigabit Ethernet (4 x Intel 82547L; 2 x Intel 82541PI with LAN bypass)
Other I/O:
- 2 x external USB 2.0 ports
- 2 x internal USB 2.0 ports (AR-N5205A); 4 x internal USB 2.0 ports (AR-N5205FL)
- 1 x RS232 for serial console
- 8-bit digital I/O (listed for AR-N5205FL only)
- PS/2 pin header (listed for AR-N5205FL only)
Power requirements -- 12VDC
Operating range -- 32 to 104 deg. F (0 to 40 deg. C)
Dimensions:
- AR-N5205A -- 8.86 x 7.09 x 1.89 inches (225 x 180 x 48mm)
- AR-N5205FL -- 10.39 x 7.20 x 2 inches (264 x 183 x 51mm)
Operating systems supported -- Linux 2.6.11 and 2.6.18; Fedora Linux 5/6/7/8; Windows XP Embedded, Windows XP

Availability

The AR-N5205A and AR-N5205FL are said to have been displayed at this week's Computex show in Taipei, but availability was not detailed. Further information on the devices may be found on the Acrosser website, here and here.

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