The Noah 6

Noah6 is The best PC Engines APU6 replacement alternative. The Noah6 was designed to replace APU6 in instant with same reliability and more features. In this article we will explore all aspects of that statement.

The genesis

Rack Matrix asked Broachlink to design a replacement card for the APU6, following the announcement that PC Engines would no longer produce APU cards "PC Engines apu platform EOL". This situation created a trouble for our operator customers who used these cards and who found themselves facing a supply issue when supplying their routers to their customers. We have therefore received numerous requests to find an equivalence or a new card that could replace the old one.

A possible solution was the use of the Noah 3, associated with the miniPCIe SFP card from Broachlink. However, this required additional handling to install the SFP card, as well as a suitable enclosure such as the Rack Matrix S2 (see the article of March 5th, 2023 for the installation of an SFP port in an S2). However, this option slightly increased manufacturing costs.

The ideal was to design a new card based on the Noah series, with at least the same characteristics as the APU6, and at a comparable price.

As part of a rapid replacement of the APU6 by the Noah6, one of the priority criteria in the Rack Matrix specifications was the following: “ The mSATA card of an APU6 must be able to be installed in a Noah6 without modifying the configuration. Once Noah6 is started, the system should be operational. Other criteria included identical motherboard size, no fan (fanless), and similar appearance.

This new powerful and flexible motherboard, designed for network and telecom solutions, was launched in September 2023. Performance and stability tests carried out in the following months were a success.

General considerations regarding the Noah range

As a solutions provider for resellers, integrators and telecom operators, Rack Matrix Technology has always listened to its customers. Indeed, it turned out that the PC Engines APU series cards, which are suitable for most applications, present some shortcomings in certain cases, reported by our customers:

• The AMD processor (4 cores 1GHz) on board the APU cards proves limited for pfSense/OPNsense routers with third-party applications requiring power for VPNs in particular.
• Some customers want to set up backup Proxmox (open source hypervisor) machines with APU cards. It works well but the 4GB of memory is not enough and 8GB would be ideal.
• Other clients would need a video port for thin client applications or for installing certain Linux distributions without patching the boot.
• Finally, some customers want to have a router capable of managing many VPN tunnels as well as a processor that can handle a load of up to 1Gbps.

It is in order to overcome these limitations that the Noah series cards were designed by our long-time partner, the motherboard manufacturer Broachlink, based on the specifications provided by Rack Matrix for each of them.

Related article with "Replacing PC Engines APU motherboards with Broachlink Noah"

Technical comparisons between APU6 and Noah6

Here's a detailed comparison chart that illustrates the improvements the Noah 6 model makes over the APU6.

	Noah6	APU6
CPU	Intel E3845 (availability until 2029~30) 4 cores 1.91GHz TDP: 10W working temperature: -40°C to 110°C AES NI: yes	AMD GX-412TC 4 cores 1GHz TDP: 6W working temperature: 0°C to 90°C AES NI: yes
Memory	2, 4 or 8GB DDR3-1333	4GB only DDR3-1333
Storage	1 x SATAII + power connector Note: Power supply with 5/12 V for 2.5 and 3.5 inch drives	1 x SATAII + power connector Note: 5V power supply for 2.5 drives only
	1x eMMc (module externe)	1 x SD
	1 x mSATA	1 x mSATA
NIC RJ45	3 x GbE Intel 210AT	3 x GbE intel 211AT
NIC Fiber	1 x SFP 1 GbE Intel 210AS	1 x SFP 1 GbE Intel i210IS Note: (industrial temperature) of no interest because the other components of the card do not have this characteristic.
Serial Port	1 x RS232 RJ45 CISCO format + transfer of TXD, RXD, GND signals to an internal connector (COM2)	microUSB (creation of a new COM port on the machine connected to each new APU)
	1 x TTL	1 x TTL
SIM + Modem 4G	2 x SIM connected to the connectors - MINI_PCIE1 - MINI_PCIE2	1 x SIM connected to connector J13 + 1 optional SIM need to be soldered and connected to connector J16 (if optional SIM used, no mSATA possible)
Support for 4G modems up to 4V	Yes on the MNI_PCIE1 port by setting the jumper (J10) to 3.8V otherwise 3.4V Note: In poor signal environment, if the 4G card can accept a maximum voltage of 4V, it is strongly recommended to set this jumper to 3.8V.	no
Video	1 micro HDMI	no
Audio	Through the HDMI port	no
I/O	20 GPIO	16 GPIO
TPM	Onboard for the ref : BL-NOAH6-E3845TPM_V10	Optional : on the LPC port (header not soldered)
BIOS	AMI (proprietary) - more options - support for UEFI and LEGACY mode - support for boot ROMs (e.g. configuration of RAID cards on the miniPCIe port) - easily customizable for mass production	Coreboot (open source) fewer options, but sufficient for most situations
Cooling	Integrated radiator	By thermal transfer to the enclosure, which acts as a radiator
Dimension	152.4 x 160 mm 7.6 mm wider than APU 6	152.4 x 152.4 mm
Support	In Europe by Rack Matrix Technology. Support Design advice and assistance service. Design office 3D integration Prototype manufacturing Custom mass manufacturing	In Europe by PC Engines
AES-NI (AES crypto hardware accelerator)	OpenSSL encryption comparison table Click on the image to download the PDF file

The comparison table clearly demonstrates that the Noah6's goal of replacing the APU6 has been achieved:

1. Replacing the APU6 is quick and easy.
2. It provides visibility into long-term availability, until approximately 2030.
3. It allows a significant increase in performance to support larger workloads.
4. It ensures backward compatibility with previous versions of the software.
5. Wider areas of application

Download : Noah6-E3845 Quick HW Manual v1.0.2.pdf

Physical comparison

Motherboard

The figure below shows all the ports available on the APU6, their mapping on the Noah 6, and the FreeBSD names assigned to the network ports. These names are essential for configuring pfSense, OPNsense and openWRT. As we can see, they are identical, which makes it possible to transfer the mSATA card from an APU6 to a Noah6 without meeting issue. Additionally, rebooting the Noah6 based device with APU6 configuration is done seamlessly.

PC Engines APU 6

Broachlink Noah 6

The names in red indicate the equivalences between the APU6 and the Noah6.
Names in green show Noah6 additions compared to APU6

Enclosures

Small enclosures in desktop format

PC  Engines enclosure for APU 6 (REF: case1d6blku)

Broachlink enclosure for Noah 6

Medium-sized enclosure in desktop and rack-mountable format

Rack Matrix S2 enclosure with APU 6

 

Rack Matrix S2 enclosure with Noah 6

Rackable

 Rack Matrix M1 enclosure with dual APU 6

 Rack Matrix M1 enclosure with dual Noah 6

Privileged areas of application.

• VPN Router, Fiber, with 4G backup
• IPBX small and medium businesses
• WiFi hotspot
• IoT gateway
• Automation
• Proxmox  
• Embedded industrial applications
• Cybersecurity
• ...  

You are an operator, integrator or industrialist and you have a project that can use the Noah6 motherboard, do not hesitate to contact us for more information. Go to contact form.

The Broachlink Noah 6 motherboard is now available for sale on our Rack Matrix store: BL-NOAH6-E3845_V10.

Rack Matrix Technology is the exclusive importer in Europe of Broachlink products and accessories, including the Noah range.