IOX ARCHITECTURE CHANGES BETWEEN IR809 & IR 1835

[CTSNANetwork]

The biggest issue is that the IOX Architecture has changed between the IR809s and the 1835s which is something I wasn’t expecting. The original routers were based on x86 (i.e. similar to the standard desktop PC), the new routers are based on arm64 which is a totally different architecture.

The application is currently built for the x86 version of linux, I am still investigating the mechanics of build the application for arm64 and will then have to work out how best to support both architectures.

Once I get the arm64 build going there is still going to be questions around the configuration required to support the application.

Am I over thinking or have Cisco already resolved this issue?

Would really appreciate some guidance on  this .

Thanks in advance.

[Alex Stevenson]

Hello @CTSNANetwork,

I saw another discussion recently on this topic, and I'll reply here what I replied there:

"I think this document may be insightful:

https://developer.cisco.com/docs/iox/#!iox-resource-downloads/downloads"

[Flo Pachinger]

Hey CTSNANetwork, correct, the CPU was changed from x86 to ARM. There are several reasons for this move (e.g. less energy consumption), but more importantly IOx became part of the actual firmware (IOS XE) of the device which makes things easier. As Alex pointed out, definitely check out the extensive IOx documentation which gives you a good overview + deep learning. 

Building the application is not that different: Be aware of pre-compiled libraries and always use the aarch / ARM ones. All popular programming languages are supporting ARM, e.g. Python/Go/Java etc. Also be aware of using an emulator when testing the application on your x86 PC/Laptop. You can find a sample guide here: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/routers/1101-industrial-integrated-services-router/214383-build-and-deploy-a-docker-iox-package-fo.html

Once built, you can install it on the IR1835. We have a learning lab for that as well: https://developer.cisco.com/learning/labs/iot-hardware-ir1835-sandbox/install-an-iox-application/ 

Hope that helps!