I knew that these critters are out there, but knowing and seeing are two different things.
Today I saw a computer in a slot all on one card, CPU and RAM and video chipset and all… and its operating system is stored on CompactFlash just like you’d find in your digital camera. How cool is that, huh? My mind immediately turned to thoughts like, “Hey, I wonder if I can get Linux on that thing?” (I couldn’t do any worse than Telos, who decided NT4 was the way to go. I was called in to troubleshoot because the “black box” telco equipment hub in question wouldn’t boot properly. Gotta love seeing BSOD on supposedly state-of-the-art studio equipment.)
I don’t know if what I saw was a true “passive backplane” machine, but until someone tells me otherwise then that’s what I think I saw. Cool.
Yes, I know, I know. I get excited over the dumbest, geekiest things sometimes. But hey, I’d rather be easily amused than difficult to amuse!
Comments
5 responses to “One of the odd little reasons I enjoy my job.”
pc104+ is really really cool. Think a complete computer in less than a 5″x5″ space (they usually exceed the specified formfactor by just a little bit).You can put one in a fanny pack, operating on batteries.
Ooooookay. That’s a very interesting picture of… what, exactly? Besides a bunch of parts loosely connected to one another, that is?
I’ve seen a couple of outfits that use the blade server architecture. It’s not just you. That stuff really is that cool!!
that itty thing is a P300 🙂 I agree it would be awesome to see a whole box full of blades all operating together.
http://www.netlife.co.nz/~mfreeck/presentation/gracesprawl2.jpg