Astfin announces Asterisk Appliance based on Blackfin

\nWe all know the benefits of Asterisk, an open source IP-PBX software solution - so wouldn't open source hardware for the Asterisk platform be a natural extension? Yes, it would and in fact Asterisk fans have been hard at work in various DIY projects to build Asterisk-compatible hardware using standard off-the-shelf components.
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\nOne such popular project is uCasterisk (you-see-Asterisk), which is a set of scripts, makefiles and patches to build Asterisk for uClinux and targeting Blackfin hardware. uCasterisk is in the process of being deprecated in favor of Astfin. Astfin is the latest and greatest Blackfin uClinux Asterisk distribution. The project authors have used Buildroot to make the very complex embedded build process very simple. So I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Mark, one of the main players behind the Asfiin project.
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\nHere's what he sent me:
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\nOn behalf of Astfin Team, I am proud to announce two new Open Source Hardware, Asterisk appliances based on Blackfin CPU.
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\nPR1-Appliance:
\nADSP-BF537 500/600MHz CPU
\n64-128MB SDRAM
\n256KB serial flash for the bootloader
\n1 Ethernet port with high performance PHY Single T1/E1 interface based on PEF2256 silicon SD card interface with a dedicated bus 256MB NAND flash for voicemail and prompts.
\nOptional, hardware based echo cancellation.
\nAstifn with Asterisk 1.4.x, Zaptel 1.4.x and Libpri 1.4.x
\n4 layer PCB
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\nBR4-Appliance:
\nADSP-BF537 500/600MHz CPU
\n64-128MB SDRAM
\n256KB serial flash for the bootloader
\n1 Ethernet port with high performance PHY Quad BRI based on Cologne silicon SD card interface with a dedicated bus 256MB NAND flash for voicemail and prompts.
\nOptional, hardware based echo cancellation.
\nAstifn with Asterisk 1.4.x, mISDN
\n4 layer PCB
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\nAt the same time I would like to reveal that we are working on 2 hardware based echo cancellation modules:
\nDSP based, with Ti C55xx and Open Source Code ASIC based, with a silicon from one of the most respected Telecom chip makers
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\nHardware designs are complete, and BR4-appliance prototype is already functional. The PR1-appliance prototyping will commence soon.
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\nBR4 appliance hardware
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\nFor details and further updates please visit http://astfin.org and/or http://blog.astfin.org
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\nAll schematics are available for free under Mozilla or GPL license.
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\n[end email]
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\nAll I have to say is wow, pretty cool! A Do It Yourself (DIY) Asterisk appliance - sounds like a fun hardware project. This is yet another Asterisk appliance option. Let me do a roll call of all the Asterisk appliances: (if I missed any let me know)
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\nAsterisk Appliance (also OEM version - 3Com Asterisk Appliance)
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\ntrixbox appliance
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\nPIKA Appliance for Asterisk
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\nMagiclink Appliance
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