Little Linux Systems For Whatever Ails Ya

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Looking for small pre-built systems for custom Linux-based projects or products? Look no further. LinuxDevices.com has assembled a handy reference list of small systems that can serve as ready-made platforms for prototyping applications, or as the basis of application-specific Linux-based systems and devices. The style, performance, and costs of these systems vary greatly."

Comments

5.25" Embedded Systems

[eric434]

You know, I wonder if you could fit those 5 1/4" systems into a regular (but tall) computer case. Imagine, your own Beowulf cluster, under your desk... Seriously, though, it would come in handy for corporate server/low-U rackmount applications. Have all the cables/connections made inside the generic PC case, fill up the rest of the space with some network-storage (SnapIT type drives) hard drives, and you've got a server room in a tenth of the space. Of course, the servers in question would have to be DNS/DHCP/X/whatever that don't use large quantities of disk space (unless the disks are mounted via NFS, but then you pretty much need Gigabit Ethernet).

Anyone have any realworld experience?

[Chuck Flynn]

It's nice to have a reference list, but unless I have some anecdotal evidence as well, I'm always reluctant to set out for uncharted territories and leave behind what's been tried and true.

Does anyone have any realworld experience with these systems? Often, what looks good on paper turns out to be a complete waste of time and money because of some small inconvenience or incompatibility left unspecified in the specs.

I'd love to hear what anyone has to say.

Anything suitable for an mp3 player?

[psm321]

Does anyone know any kind of premade linux box that could possible be used an mp3 player? Yes, I know it would probably be easier to just buy one, but i want to be able to put in vorbis support and other such stuff. So what I would probably be looking for is something with:

Hard drive or flash or something i could store the files on

Sound (no mp3 decoding chip, I plan on doing that in software)

Some sort of display mechanism and at least 2-3 buttons

A relatively small size (maybe about 4"x6"x.5")

A reasonably fast processor (I'm not sure what is needed, but probably about 200mhz)

And of course, the ability to run Linux :)

A nice looking case is NOT a requirement :)

If anyone has any ideas please post here or email me.

Thanks a lot :)

p.s. My email address in the profile is messed up... its "-ends-with-oo" not "-ends-w"

IPSEC VPN

[gengee]

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?

ARGH!!!! 3D + TV-Out: Impossible under Linux?

[Spoing]

No small appliances include 3D hardware, good sound, and TV-out. Because of that, setting up a multimedia device requires adding additional cards. For sound, there are many choices. For video, there are no choices that are compatable with Linux and support both;

1. I. 3D (good, current-generation)
2. 
   

   II. TV-out (RCA and/or S-video)

That's why you see tech sites talking about how to make your own TIVO-style device, or how to make a traveling MP3 jukebox, but none that mention 3D games. Only Nokia's planned Media Terminal is supposed to have both, and adding a VGA-to-RCA converter isn't cheap.

Think that Nvidia, ATI, or Matrox have this fixed? Nope.

At first glance, most of the /. minions out there will probably say "big deal". Well, smarty pants, I dare you. I dare all of you all. Find such a card. After much searching, it turns out that you can have either 3D or TV-out, but not both.

Any GeForce, Radeon, or G400 can pump out great 3D. Some -- but not all -- can be tweaked to output video to a standard TV using the Linux frame buffer...but in the process, you loose all 3D hardware acceleration.

Yow. Scratch 3D.

Enable 3D, and the TV-out ports aren't supported.

As for projects that are actively attempting to address the TV-out problem, they do exist. Sourceforge hosts a few, and Freshmeat has pointers to a few more. None have it licked, though. Most TV-out ports have some propriatory muck that makes supporting them difficult at best. If we're lucky, one of these companies will release a Macrovision-encrusted, binary-only, x86, version sometime in the next couple years.

How depressing...what was the story about the Zerox printer driver? How is it that 20+ years later, something so trivial is still a sticking point.