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Small Form SMP Boxen and Laptops - Where Are They?
3ryon asks: "I've been charged with procuring a high-end portable server containing two 1Ghz CPU's, 30 Gig of hard drive, and 1 Gig of RAM, all under $20,000. Ideally this would exist in a laptop footprint. Does this exist anywhere? My current idea is to buy a 1U server from Dell and a 1U LCD/Keyboard module and have a machine shop build an enclosure for them. Besides my need (a portable video encoder), I bet that sales people would love to be able to bring this sort of power to a client site." Even though computing technology has grown much smaller thru the years, I'm not quite sure SMP laptops are a possiblilty yet. A major concern of putting so much computing power in such a small space is twofold: heat and the electrical power needed to run it. I'm not quite sure that the manufacturers have found a way around that, yet. Is it possible to get SMP power in a smaller footprint than your typical desktop, however?
why would you rely on your unreliable memory and misinform the masses when you could check out the webpage that includes modern specs? (it looks 64-bit to me...)
Why not just run LinuxPPC or OpenBSD on a G4 apple laptop?
The Maxpac folds up into a suitcase, but it weighs around 30#. Runs W2K, no notes about Linux.
http://www.maxvision.com/MaxPac_index.cfm
The 5200 is dual proc one screen.
The 7200NLE has dual procs and monitors.
5200 Features and Specifications
-Single or Dual Pentium III, 500MHz through 1GHz 128MB to 2GB Main Memory, 4 DIMM sockets, PC100 ECC
-3Dlabs' Oxygen GVX1 OpenGL graphics accelerator, 32MB memory, DFP MDR20 connector and SVGA connector
-56K Modem PCI V.90
-10/100 Fast Ethernet RJ45 connector
-Choice of 9.1 or 18.2GB Ultra2 SCSI hard drive @ 10,000rpm
-LS-120 superfloppy drive (supports 1.44MB and 120MB media)
-24X CD-ROM, DVD optional
-I/O Ports: 2 Serial, Parallel, 2 USB, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, audio in/out, external Ultra2 SCSI for external disk and tape
-Direct digital 17" flat panel display, 1280 x 1024, 24-bit true color, 170 NITs, 160 degree wide viewing angle
-Removable accessory pac
-300 watts power, either 120VAC or 240VAC
-PCI expansion slot up to 9.5 inches, available power: 10 watts
-18.6" x 13.6" x 7.5", all aluminum construction; weight fully configured: 32 pounds
While it's surely possible to get the components into an enclosure smaller than an average mini-tower case, would you really want to? You need air space to cool those processors. You also need a fairly hefty power supply, which is also going to get pretty warm...
Wow...a chance I could be first for once...;P
If you are looking for a Portable Video Encoder look at these turnkey solutions from Pinnacle Systems (Great Industry Reputation, I Love my NITRO system).
Why build it when you can buy the whole thing for less money. Granted you are locked into Windows and a proprietary hardware combination, but thats pretty much the nature of video.... I have a FAST VMSTUDIO that we still use, the capture card is almost 8 years old.
Rule of Life Number 2: Remember, it can all go to hell at any minute. --Jimmy Buffet
Two things:
You require 1GHz CPUs. The GHz mobile P3 isn't even out yet (although it will be soon). A few (reckless) notebook makers have begun putting desktop P3s in, but they're very hot. 2 would be unmanageable.
I can only assume that battery power is a non-issue. Otherwise, the battery life would be like an hour, tops. Especially if you go the do it yourself route. As such, I'd suggest doing the 1U rack thing and just don't worry about battery stuff.
Tadpole is sort of what you are looking for. They make UltraSparc and HP PA-RISC based laptops. It doesn't look like they make Dual systems, but their stuff is definately worth drooling over.
On the other hand, I wonder how hard it would be to design a Dual PowerPC laptop, of either Apple or IBM workstation variety, since those chips run real cool.
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Check the Good Ole "LunchBox" form factor! For those unfamiliar, they are basically just a small atx case that accepts standard atx mobo/peripherals and has an LCD display and keyboard that fold up to become part of the "case". It ends up being about the size of a briefcase thats double thick. Portable desktop power.
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
Search on google for 'portable rackmount' or 'industrial PC' -- there are tons of places selling these things.
Someone at my work built something along these lines; he had a flight case custom built, LCD flat panel in the top, regular PC in the bottom.
Now, our requirements differed from yours, as we needed lots of PCI cards in this unit. Since you don't then starting from one of those 1U servers is probably the best idea. It's not perfect though, since a 1U server will be an akward shape.
Mind you, other small form factor machines in a neater shape are more likely to be workstations (e.g. Compaq Ipaq) and so won't offer the power.
Try the people who e.g. make custom flight cases for musicians.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Maybe I'm missing something, but why does this have to be a single system? Generally speaking, servers aren't designed to have pretty user interfaces.
If I were in charge of this, I'd get a Supermicro 6010H (about $5000 including hotswap 10K RPM SCSI drives) and a $5000 laptop (of whatever variety you prefer). And pocket^H^H^H^H^H^Hgive back the remaining $10000.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Obviously, you are aware that once you purchase one of these you are locked into that motherboard and processor combination. You will eventually not see much in the way of return on investment, personally if I needed high performance gear in a small footprint - I would buy a custom 1U case and put an AMD Athlon/Thunderbird in it and switch to the dual motherboards when they are available.
Once you find your perfect server, do not overlook heating and power requirements for your system. Heat is a huge problem, especially with AMD hardware. Look for the Orb fan products for use with AMD's processors, they are my favorite and increase system stability.
-Pat
I've really gotta know why you need such a beast... When would somebody need to be able to freely transport that kind of power arround, unless they're heisting it?
You could always look into some of the stuff that people in the Gamer/Overclocker/Casemod Scene have done for LAN-party boxes, for ideas on making the case portable... One word of caution : Big ass heatsinks don't like rough handling when mounted...
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
In the future, please refrain from making comments that completely answer a submission, rather, enhance the topic by adding thought provoking thoughts, such as...
"What might one do with a Beowulf cluster of such SMP laptops?"
...or inflammetory thoughts...
"Finally, laptops might have enough processing power handle Mozilla!"
...or a comment that brings other market segments into the disscussion...
"I'll bet that OS X would run lightning fast on such a laptop and how many simultaneous Napster downloaded MP3s could you play on such a laptop?"
Just don't mention realistic facts that would make such a system unfeasable! By the way, this comment is mostly just a joke. ;-)
Keeping
Yep. It's called a Macintosh G4 PowerBook...
Annie
DUCT TAPE: The Election Supervisors' Secret Weapon
There are some microATX dual processor motherboards around, so you might start there.
However, you haven't mentioned what your tilter is here. You can't possibily have performance and size the same, just as you can't have cost and performance the same. Larger servers will most always perform better than smaller ones, because in this case size isn't too big of a consideration. Consumer PCs can get away with their mid-tower size by sacrificing a good motherboard and power supply. Laptops take this to a whole new level, but some of the solutions are getting more and more impressive. Still though, I don't think there will ever be a time when a full size server will be the same size or slower than, something, say, the size of a laptop. True, processor feature sizes shrink, but transistor counts similarly rise, almost linearly. This is why processor sizes have largely remained the same -- even grown a little bit. This, despite a feature size jump from 1 micron down to 180 nanometers.
Ultimatly, if you're that pressed for space, you could try jerry-rigging a dual GHz system inside something the size of a 700 MHz laptop, but don't expect your hardware to like you. A GHz system is worth much if you're constantly getting BSODs and lockups...
You could always wait a few years when people are trying to cram 5 GHz systems into small enclousers, then a dual 1 GHz system will be no problem. Can anyone say DIMM-PC?
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
I found this one which seems pretty representative. Note that there is a picture of it with dual pentium II's. You may have to shop around for a system with a beefy enough power supply to cover the load from the system (this one comes with a 250w PS which probably isn't enough).
I wouldn't seriously consider porting arounnd a 1U system with a rack lcd & keyboard. Those things are pretty damn unweildy even in the server room. These lunch boxes should move around pretty well.
Thanks for all of your help, the Lunchbox ATX is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. Didn't know they existed. If there weren't so expen$ive I'd get one for LAN parties. :)
Kind thoughts do not change the world
If you get to Hardocp.com they should have a few links to case-modding pages and other relavant info.
Anyway, as a guy who appreciates even case-hacking, I hope you go with something cool. There's nothing quite like having a unique-looking box to show off.