Re: Linux on an SBC was Re: [SLUG] Sarasota meeting

From: Ronan Heffernan (ronan@iotcorp.com)
Date: Thu Aug 22 2002 - 08:37:58 EDT


Glen wrote:
> How does a person get their hands on one of those? Or 16 of them? Clustering
> comes to mind, and I've been wanting to mess with OpenMosix. Got no space for
> a rack ;)
>
> Glen
>
>
> On Wednesday 21 August 2002 11:41 am, you wrote:
>
>>We will also be bringing out the latest linux box created at Baker
>>(08-21-2002). It is an AMP single board computer with a Transmeta Crusoe
>>processor (660Mhz). 500M of mem and 20Gigs of drivespace. Fits in your
>>hand. We are using it to control satellite communications on airplanes.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>| Mark Bishop (mark@bish.net) | Computer Engineer |
>>| 813-253-2197 | Network Engineer |
>>| http://bish.net | Embedded Programmer |
>

Embedded machines tend to be very expensive for the power that they
offer. My old company paid $450+ for a Pentium-class 133MHz with 8MB
Flash and 16MB RAM. You could buy such a macine used for ~$50 with more
RAM and HD. We needed Industrial temperature ranges and very reliable
devices (a major factor in choosing a solid-state FLASH disk instead of
a spinning HD). And our boxes had to fit into NEMA enclosures;
accomodating a desktop form factor could have added several hundred
dollars to the cost of the enclosures.

StreetPrices.com has:
# Current Computers syspadb1100 $198.00
   Performax Duron 1100 1100Mhz AMD Duron 128-bit 3D video modem 10/100
Base TX Mid Tower (32MB RAM)

Clustering 10 of the $450 computers would not yeild the performance of
this low-end 1.1GHz machine for $198.

--ronan



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