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Mini Dual-Celeron Board
Anonymous Coward writes: "Well, I thought I was pretty cool with my BP6 with dual 366s
overclocked to 550 ... I just stumbled across what looks like
a mini dual-slot 370 mobo. Up to 1GB RAM, flat-panel
support, solid-state disk support. What *would* you use this
for, a dual Celeron laptop!? I wonder if anyone makes a
complete computer based on this board? Who are they selling
this to?"
This is a Single-Board Computer (SBC). They have been produced with dual-processor designs back to the days of the 486. They even have SBC's that can handle quad xeons. And there are a lot of these that are a helluva lot smaller than this one.
They are absolutely NOT laptop tech. They require as much power consumption as a full system. They are designed to facilitate hardware upgrades with minimal downtime. (Swap the motherboard without removing peripheral cards; etc)
Now, the question of a dual-processor laptop is a nice one to raise, but the power needs of let's say... two 300 mhz processors is WAY MORE than the requirements of ONE 600Mhz processor, so why bother? Maybe in the future, these new extremely low power cpu's will be put into mobiles in multiples, but until then; no.
Honestly I can't even see why this item even made news. First, it's old tech. Secondly, it's WRONG, and thirdly the suggestions are totally off-base.
Perhaps someone should have posted an "Ask Slashdot" for "Are dual-processor mobiles in our future?"
~GoRK
Dude, what you'd build with that particular part you found is a rack-mounted server.
You know, the kind much larger than a laptop?
>Doe sthis mean if I have a newer system with 64 bit PCI slots I can slap this bad boy in...
/. reader. Sorry.
Absolutely not. This board is designed for passive backplane systems rather than the (much) more common motherboard-based PCs most of us are familiar with.
A "passive backplane" is basically a motherboard with the chips removed -- a "passive" "backplane" of interconnected ISA/PCI slots -- nothing more. The funny thing is these passive backplanes cost more than many (most?) motherboards.
Passive backplanes are typically used in industrial applications where cost isn't as important, or where the ability to do a complete "motherboard-equivilent" swap in the field without removing 2 dozen screws is important.
In short, this isn't something that concerns the average
Then there are heaps of places. Not all have dual CPU support but still. An article like this seem almost like advertisement. The board is really not that unique.
So, to level that out, here's a few links:
Dual Xeon board at http://www.mycomp-tmc.com/htm/xd6gx.htm
This company has dual CPU's boards and other nifty _really_ small boards at http://www.nexcom.com.tw/
Bunch of small boards at
http://www.tme-inc.com/html/produ cts/prodinfo.htm
A _really_ small Pentium board at http://www.cts.com/browse/adlogic/msm p5s.html
Well, that should give an idea and there's lots more out there.
Breace.
These SBC (Single Board Computers) are generally used in embedded applications where standard form factor PC's won't work. Additionally, you get the ability to use main-stream/common development tools rather than more esoteric ones. Depending on your market, you can use DOS, Windows, or Linux combined with tried and true development tools such as Visual C++ or gcc. Definitely makes training & debugging much easier.
I've used devices similar to build controllers for therapeutic water beds, various interfaces to hardware (non-computer, i.e. control surfaces on an aircraft, and the like).
When you need them, they're very useful, although generally you're trading size for price. The last intel based device I used was about 5"x8", but the smallest was the ucSIMM Module running the Motorola 68EZ328 or the DIMM PC running an i486.
When you pair up an intel based SBC with the solid state disks from M-Systems that's when things start getting interesting.
I checked out their page, and was just as curious to find out what they were used for. I opened up the url to the main page, and it seems like they're aiming for the ISP / Rack-mount solution. (Note, they are a certified MS Solution provider... )
Just thought I'd point that out.
Green Monkey