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is one that I am currently experimenting with: Allwell Set-Top Boxes.

I bought one through my employer, and the cool things about these boxes are:

• small size, these are set-top boxes !
• remote control and keyboard, both are normal PS/2 mouse and keyboard to the machine ! No drivers needed, and you can even switch the set-top box on and off with it... woohoo ! :-)
• SCART output !! (if you want to connect a normal VGA monitor you have to get a slot plate with a VGA connector and connect it with the main-board)
• even has a SCART input, but I don't know how to use it
• my version even has a SIGMA MPEG2 decoder chip
• room for one normal PCI card, e.g. my old Bt878 card
• you have to glue your 2,5" HDD to the cover, actually... at least in my version. There are also versions of this set-top-box which have a socket for 2,5" HDDs
• I have seen versions with ~300 MHz Geode processors, mine has a 667 MHz VIA processor, IIRC

Can be seen here.

Only problem is the display driver, the video chip is a Tvia 5005 and so far I had no succes in finding drivers for Linux... VESA FB works well but it could be much faster/smoother/use real PAL resolutions if I had the correct drivers. If anyone knows where to get them, please tell me !

Sound works fine BTW, but I don't remember what chip that was... CX5530 ?

You and me both.

Well, in my case it's a Sony HDTV-ready set (though still 4:3 'cause there's so little 16:9 HD stuff broadcast), I have wired the whole house with 2xCat5e and 2xRG6/U, and I too want a central media server, though for movies as well as music (I have about 160 GB of the latter, unompressed). Yes, I have the obligatory DirectTV system with 18"x24" dish and twin dual LNBs, 5x8 multiswitch at the headend, and a terrestrial HD/SD/analog antenna.

I've looked at GCT Allwell's iDVD3036 for a local quiet thin client for an application similar to yours, but there are a few problems, not the least of which is the poor GNU/Linux support for the Sigma Designs em8400 H/W MPEG2 decoder and CyberPro 5005 graphics chip. A proprietary library for the em8400 is available, as well as proprietary X drivers for the CyberPro, but the latter doesn't handle digital overlays and alphablending very well. Register-level documentation is available for both chips, but I lack sufficient video graphics card architecture knowledge to make much sense of it without some kind of tutorial context. About the only nice thing about that combo is the use of digital CCIR601 overlay ports on the CyberPro for the output of the em8400 (and a TV tuner) -- this avoids loss of sharpness due to a more common analog overlay.

Now, what makes this system interesting, is the use of more standard video and the availabiliy of a PCI slot: one could drop a Sigma Designs Netstream 2k in there, and analog overlay the X output. You also get stock composite, svideo, and component outputs from the em8400 directly, so, using multiple inputs on the TV, and an SVGA to svideo converter, go between displaying an X display with a scaled PIP live video image and a full-screen video image, with better resolution (or just get a TV with SVGA-in).

Of course, replacing the slim-line CD drive with a DVD drive, and swapping out the HDD for a DOC would probably be called for.

This leaves the issue of streaming data to the box: does it sport on-board 100 Mb/s ethernet?

You and me both.

Well, in my case it's a Sony HDTV-ready set (though still 4:3 'cause there's so little 16:9 HD stuff broadcast), I have wired the whole house with 2xCat5e and 2xRG6/U, and I too want a central media server, though for movies as well as music (I have about 160 GB of the latter, unompressed). Yes, I have the obligatory DirectTV system with 18"x24" dish and twin dual LNBs, 5x8 multiswitch at the headend, and a terrestrial HD/SD/analog antenna.

I've looked at GCT Allwell's iDVD3036 for a local quiet thin client for an application similar to yours, but there are a few problems, not the least of which is the poor GNU/Linux support for the Sigma Designs em8400 H/W MPEG2 decoder and CyberPro 5005 graphics chip. A proprietary library for the em8400 is available, as well as proprietary X drivers for the CyberPro, but the latter doesn't handle digital overlays and alphablending very well. Register-level documentation is available for both chips, but I lack sufficient video graphics card architecture knowledge to make much sense of it without some kind of tutorial context. About the only nice thing about that combo is the use of digital CCIR601 overlay ports on the CyberPro for the output of the em8400 (and a TV tuner) -- this avoids loss of sharpness due to a more common analog overlay.

Now, what makes this system interesting, is the use of more standard video and the availabiliy of a PCI slot: one could drop a Sigma Designs Netstream 2k in there, and analog overlay the X output. You also get stock composite, svideo, and component outputs from the em8400 directly, so, using multiple inputs on the TV, and an SVGA to svideo converter, go between displaying an X display with a scaled PIP live video image and a full-screen video image, with better resolution (or just get a TV with SVGA-in).

Of course, replacing the slim-line CD drive with a DVD drive, and swapping out the HDD for a DOC would probably be called for.

This leaves the issue of streaming data to the box: does it sport on-board 100 Mb/s ethernet?

While we're at it, it would be nice if it would let me browse the web, or perhaps run some online games that are playable at some distance from a relatively large, low-resolution (640x480) screen (though I have an HD-ready high-resolution set, most don't). And you know, all these entertainment devices with their complex controls, some of which have a video output for interactive menus are getting a pain to control. Why can't they provide a web server interface to a device with a browser and appropriate plugins, and just be hubbed into the local room 'net?

The ability to run local entertainment software (i.e. games), networked or not, is a feature that comes for free if we're going to have enough "oomph" to do MPEG2 decoding. While you might want to use it for non-entertainment duties (i.e. checking one's bank acount, or ordering a pizza on-line), work isn't it's primary purpose.

THAT is what the XBox could be. Architecture should be open, so third parties can develop apps/add on hardware for it. Still, it should be useful enough on it's own to justify it's price. Whether the hard disk (if present) and or CD/DVD-ROM is integrated, or outboard (firewire?) is more of a stylistic issue -- today we have A/V receivers as well as separates.

In my search I have come across some neat tech by Sigma Designs (http://www.sigmadesigns.com, http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/netstream_con sole.htm (watch the damn inserted space), and particularly the iDVD3036). So decent convergence products are coming (say 2002).

But, if PC history tells us anything, the ones that succeed will be more open than the one's that don't. Unless Microsoft opens the XBox up architecturally and makes it easy for third party hacker developers, they will be among the convergence also-rans.

At work, we've been searching for a product that we can use as an IPSEC-enabled router.

So far, we've just been giving out PC's with FreeS/WAN. But this gets a little bit expensive, so we've been trying to find an embedded solution. Any such product would have to meet the following requirements:

* Cheap
* Small
* Reasonably powerful (At least 200MHz for x86 processors)
* And hopefully, sleek looking.

LinuxDevices Mentions a product called the STBMX1030, which meets all of these requirements, and much much more. But it seems as though the company that makes them, Allwell, has stopped making them. Anyone know of anything else that fits the bill?

Monty

The CPU on this box is marginal for software-based decoding of MPEG video and, as you mentioned, there is no slot for a DVD drive.

This box, made by the same company has a DVD drive and a DVD decoder chipset. No need for DeCSS - the chipset already has a licensed CSS decoder.

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This is quite a cool device. The company also sells stuff like this for hotel internet access. More information about the actual device can be found here