What ARM hardware should we buy and where should we host it?

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Guix,

currently, we have a very small number of ARM build machines that
provide some substitutes for armhf and aarch64 systems.  (See
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/donate/ for details.)

We would like to increase this number by purchasing more systems, but we
need your help to get this right.

The first question is what ARM hardware to buy; the second is where to
host that hardware.  Here are some considerations:

- The new systems should be easy to host in a data centre; this might
  mean that we need rack-mounted servers, or that we need a co-location
  data centre that accepts machines with unusual form factors.

- The system should be able to build substitutes for both armhf and
  aarch64.  Not all aarch64 CPUs support building for armhf, for
  example.

- We need to be able to restart the machine remotely.  If members of the
  Guix project have no physical access to the hosting site, this can be
  done via remote-controlled power supply or similar.

We are looking for volunteers who could either host a machine at home or
in a data centre that they could get emergency access to.

One system that looks promising for co-location is the Softiron
Overdrive 3000 (a rack-mounted ARM server.)  A system suitable for
hosting at home is the Softiron Overdrive 1000.  If you know of other
machines that would be suitable for our purposes, please let us know!

(The cost for the machines and for hosting them in a data centre would
be covered by the Guix project, but we are also willing to accept
machine donations if we can also find a volunteer to provide hosting.)

--
Ricardo