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Run LinuxPPC In A Spare Drive Bay

Posted by timothy on from the please-apple-clone-this-:)- dept.

Knobby was one of the several people to point out a really neat piece of hardware. He writes: "Total Impact just announced (a few days ago) their 'briQ'. It's a PPC G3 or G4 machine measuring 5.74 X 1.625 X 8.9 inches with a single 64bit 66MHz PCI slot, integrated 10/100Mbit networking, a 40GB HDD, and ships with LinuxPPC.. The press release on the page doesn't mention it, but the announcement I received mentioned a starting price of ~$2500.. Note: These are the same folks making the quad G3 and G4 processor PCI cards mentioned in an earlier article." I've long wanted a computer in which the processor / motherboard / memory were as easily removed and replaced as a hard drive, this sounds quite close to that ideal.

4 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Re:SPARCPlug! by SlashGeek · · Score: 4
    It looks like the SparcPlug was made back in '96 by a company named Ross, now defunct. Here is an article from Byte with a review of the product shortly after its release. It appears that a comany named DataMaster International still sells them here. No price is listed, but they do take quotes.


    "Everything that can be invented has been invented."

    --

    --I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are someone else's fault.

  2. Passive Backplanes by Phaid · · Score: 5

    I've long wanted a computer in which the processor / motherboard / memory were as easily removed and replaced as a hard drive, this sounds quite close to that ideal.

    Also sounds like quite an expensive solution to an already-solved problem. There are a number of manufacturers of passive-backplane systems that provide just that level of convenience. Basically, the passive backplane consists of a long board with something like 6 PCI and 6 ISA slots. This backplane installs in the case in the same position as a traditional motherboard. The CPU/RAM/Chipset "motherboard" is actually just a big PCI card that does bus mastering, and all your other peripherals sit in the slots. You can even get split backplanes, where more than one "motherboard" can coexist in the same case.

    Nice thing about this design is that if any card fails, including the "motherboard", you yank it out and replace it - the backplane itself is so simple it basically never fails. And ventilation is usually better, since all your hot components are in the middle of the case rather than on the bottom or side -- a lot of these cases have a row of big 120mm fans across the entire front, so everything is well ventilated.

    Most of the ones you'll see out there are fairly large (a little bigger than an old-style AT case), but I've even seen and used passive-backplane minitowers. The nice thing about these is that the form factor allows for a lot more room for slots in the case and therefore more peripherals.

  3. As always, Economics the factor by Christopher+B.+Brown · · Score: 5
    At $500, these would likely fly out like hotcakes. (And probably sell at a loss, unfortunately.)

    At $1000, they would be a pretty good value.

    At $2500, Californians care about the power consumption this week, although if things stabilize in a month, they may not care so much.

    For the rest of us, such pricing is daunting unless there's a really compelling application that needs the exact form factor provided.

    This is highly unlikely to result in all sorts of people going out and buying these sorts of machines; it's just not economical unless there's a compelling need that justifies paying a couple grand for a pretty small server.

    --
    If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
  4. SPARC by sql*kitten · · Score: 4
    I've long wanted a computer in which the processor / motherboard / memory were as easily removed and replaced as a hard drive, this sounds quite close to that ideal.

    Like a SPARCplug ?