Raspberry Pi 3B+ specifications

  • SoC: Broadcom BCM2837B0 1
  • CPU: Quad-core A53 (ARMv8) 64-bit @ 1.4GHz
  • GPU: Broadcom Videocore-IV
  • RAM: 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM
  • Network: Gigabit Ethernet (via USB channel), 2.4GHz & 5GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
    • gigabit at a theoretical maximum throughput of 300Mb/s, due to its use of a single USB channel.
  • Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.2, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
  • Storage: Micro-SD
  • GPIO: 40-pin GPIO header, populated
  • Ports: HDMI, 3.5mm analogue audio-video jack, 4x USB 2.0, Ethernet
  • Dimensions: 82mm x 56mm x 19.5mm, 50g

USB-to-LAN adapters are listed here.

Download the latest IPFire (Flash Image) and flash it to an MicroSD card.

Note!
The ARM flash image is configured for serial console at default
• If using HDMI & USB Keyboard: edit the uENV.txt file and change SERIAL-CONSOLE=ON to OFF
• If using the serial console: edit the config.txt file and add enable_uart=1 to the end

After flashing the SD card install it into the Raspberry Pi, connect the cables and power supply, and power it up. At the start of booting you'll see:

Net:   No ethernet found.
starting USB…
USB0:  Core Release: 2.80a
scanning bus 0 for devices…

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (Raspi 3B+) will normally boot within 70 seconds. Once the Raspi 3B+ is fully booted begin to follow the steps here.

Note!
If the IPFire sits (forever) with just the IPFire logo (1 logo for each core), then see Note! above. The IPFire may using HDMI & Keyboard while configured for serial console.
If the IPFire sits for more than 3 to 4 minutes it may be trying to locate a driver for an unknown USB device. Unplug the unknown device and reboot the Raspberry Pi.

On-board Ethernet and WiFi

In the IPFire setup Extended Network Menu, the on-board Ethernet port is known as usb: Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC95. And the wireless/WiFi is known as sdio: brcmfmac.


Benchmarks

Network 2

To perform these benchmarks, the Raspberry Pi IPFire box was connected... iperf3. gigabit ethernet.

computer [client] <--> Raspberry Pi IPFire <--> computer [server]

iMac3:~ $ iperf3 -c 192.168.60.1
Connecting to host 192.168.60.1, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.1.100 port 51353 connected to 192.168.60.1 port 5201
. . .
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  91.2 MBytes  76.5 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  90.8 MBytes  76.1 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iMac3:~ $ iperf3 -c 192.168.60.1 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.60.1, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.60.1 is sending
[  5] local 192.168.1.100 port 51359 connected to 192.168.60.1 port 5201
. . .
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  86.0 MBytes  72.2 Mbits/sec  252             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  85.6 MBytes  71.8 Mbits/sec                  receiver

OpenSSL Speed Test 2

/usr/bin/openssl speed -elapsed -evp [cipher]
Cipher 16k bytes kB/s Mbit/s
aes-256-gcm 4,336 34.7
aes-192-gcm 4,653 37.2
aes-128-gcm 4,997 40.0
camellia-256-cbc 13,238 105.9
camellia-192-cbc 13,206 105.6
camellia-128-cbc 17,012 136.1
aes-256-cbc 8,660 69.3
aes-192-cbc 9,967 79.7
aes-128-cbc 11,693 93.5
seed-cbc 11,895 95.2

OpenVPN Speed Test 2

time /usr/sbin/openvpn --test-crypto --secret /tmp/secret --verb 0 --tun-mtu 20000 --ncp-disable --cipher [cipher]
Cipher real Mbit/s
aes-256-gcm 2m44.956s 19.4
aes-192-gcm 2m38.765s 20.2
aes-128-gcm 2m32.902s 20.9
camellia-256-cbc 1m53.125s 28.3
camellia-192-cbc 1m53.125s 28.3
camellia-128-cbc 1m46.372s 30.1
aes-256-cbc 2m9.788s 24.7
aes-192-cbc 2m3.320s 25.9
aes-128-cbc 1m57.558s 27.2
seed-cbc 1m55.202s 27.8

  1. from MagPi magazine Raspberry Pi 3B+ Specs And Benchmarks 

  2. Tested on IPFire 2.21 (armv5tel) - Core Update 126