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Extreme Linux Server Available to North America
jcasman writes "CNet is covering an announcement from Japanese Linux provider Plat'Home on a low-cost, super tough Linux-based server, now available in the US, that can handle extreme heat and cold. 'The OpenMicroServer is kind of an "extreme" use server pushing the boundaries for normal, low-cost hardware. In a 624-day endurance test, the OpenMicroServer performed normally under 122 degree F conditions. The unit also employs a power efficient AMD Alchemy (MIPS) CPU and precise part placement based on thermo-fluid analysis to achieve semi-hermetic construction.'"
50 degrees Celsius for the rest of the world.
So this server shouldn't get slashdotted?
I say we test it.
import system.cool.Sig;
Ok, so it's wide temperature range, low power, and low cost. How about some more detail?
...)
- Actual power consumption. (How does it vary with load and temperature? What voltage (range) is required?)
- Price.
- Processor speed.
- Internal memory. (Disk? Flash? How much RAM?,
- I/O ports. (How many? What are they?)
Etc.
TFA was fluff.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
BUT - will it run linu..... oh, nevermind.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
An extreme end server that is ruggedized against severe temperatures has potential value in a number of areas. First, it certainly meets the thermal requirements for military-grade systems, so I would expect to see this getting some interested looks from that direction. Severe temperatures have killed voting machines, so that's another place that might be very interested in this server. Commodity e-voting with far more reliable hardware will sound a LOT more atractive to many States. The range isn't extreme enough to support some of the really harsh environments out there, but it would be good enough to get a tracked vehicle with a hose attachment into places too hot and too dangerous for human firefighters who wouldn't be able to stay that close to a fire.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Sorry if I'm not overly impressed.
db
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
How well does it work in a condensing atmosphere?
It's easy to work down to 0C when conditions are perfectly dry, it's another story when everything starts to sweat.
And what kind of airflow are we talking about when operating at 122F ambient?
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
How can something be "semi"-airtight? Does this mean that if you plug it in and drop it into the bathtub with you, you'll only end up semi-dead?
Depends. Are they planning on posting to Usenet?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
But will it run Vista?
So say we all
latin: statim
What is the difference between celsius and centigrade?
In practical terms nothing.
In technical terms 'centigrade' scale is defined as having zero at the melting point of ice, and 100 at the boiling point of water at standard atomopheric pressure. While celsius is defined as the kelvin temperature - 273.15.
The reason for the difference was that the melting point of water is hard to measure precisely, due to the mechanics of melting creating an insulating layer of meltwater around the ice, that you can't simply stir to remove because that would introduce heat...which obviously is counter productive.
So they redefined it in terms of Kelvin which could be measured more precisely, and renamed it to make it unambiguous which definition was being used.
And where does "stat" come from when used in medical dramas?
stat is from the latin 'statim', which just means 'immediately' or 'at once'.
You do not know what "precise part placement based on thermo-fluid analysis to achieve semi-hermetic construction" means?
Well, lets break it up:
a) "precise part placement"
b) "thermo-fluid analysis"
c) "semi-hermetic construction"
It means that
A) the CPU is placed close to the case, so B)the case functions as a heat sink. Therefore, no fan is needed and the box is C) dustproof.
This happens to be a fairly common design.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
Many evolutionary servologists believe that the computers that function in modern server room environments share a common ancestor that existed before air conditioning and electric power generation. Ancient servers were likely powered by sulfur compounds and operated at much higher temperatures and pressures.
I just came back from the Embedded Systems Conference, where you see systems running on shake tables, or submerged in aquaria. With fish. -18C to 50C is not an industrial temperature range. Normally, the "commercial range" is 0C to 70C, and "industrial range" is -40C to +85C. It's all solid state memory, so there's not much of a temperature problem at the low end, as long as the humidity is low enough to avoid condensation or ice. "Thermo-fluid analysis to achieve semi-hermetic construction." - right.
Also, the thing has a MIPS processor, and it's a bit late for that. It's not even AMD product any more; the Alchemy line was sold off to Raza years ago.
What about Canada? You're just as guilty of centricism. What about Mexico, Panama, Honduras...
Were that I say, pancakes?
Regarding Celsius/centigrade, while the name change happened a few years after the change in definition, I don't think you can consider them to be separate scales. Some people still say "centigrade" and when they do so you have to assume that they're just using the wrong name, rather than start converting.
Plus, Kelvin is itself based on the triple-point of water so we can't say that Celsius is based on water and centigrade isn't. They're really just synonyms.
Acutally, you can survive a limited amount of time exposed to space. See 2001: A Space Odyssey. Arthur C Clarke knew what he was talking about.
Yes, space is very very cold. But vacuums are very good insulators, so there isn't much to take the heat away from you other than radiation, which is a very slow process to lose heat by. Your blood will boil from the low pressure before you'd freeze or suffocate.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Scully, are you familiar with the Apollo 18 mission? It was a secret launch to test the survival times of unprotected humans in space.
But Mulder, that's crazy, the government would never--
Would never what, Scully? Never kill to hide the TRUTH? Never cover up what the public has a right to know?
Klingon programs don't timeshare, they battle for supremacy.
Chimpanzees were deliberately exposed to vacuum in testing. They survived as well.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
This is good, because I plan on running a cluster in Hell. What I would like to know is whether or not it is resistant to gay christian right republicans, because there will be a lot of them there.
I don't want to no gay christian republicans all up in my box (And I mean that in every conceivable way).
Also, in the event that hell freezes over, or snowballs do, in fact, have a chance, or we experience, merely, a cold day in hell, I need to know whether it will survive a hard freeze. I for one continue to be disappointed in the fact that servers like this don't come with notoriously insulating Unix beards. By which I mean Unix beards, the dudes, not Unix beards, the beards. We could cut one open like a tauntaun (Unix beard, the dude) and stick the box inside.
And then there is smugness shielding. I don't want Satan all up in my grill about uptimes lasting an eternity, which I totally fucking plan on attaining. I for one will not be rebooting every 48 hours for some stupid Vista upgrade.
Also, do the gates of hell constitute a "firewall"? There's a lot of fire there, and it is kind of wallish. Is port 80 open? Does god forbid export of strong crypto to hell? Are codecs free in the afterlife? Will I be sued by SCO? Because you know they'll all be in hell, and you know Satan has strong connections with Microsoft and lots of capital.
There will be a lot to navigate (I hear the ferry o'er the river styx is completely wallpapered in hardcore pornographic images of Maureen O'Gara in flagrante delicto with Steve Ballmer and Steve Jobs.
I need a server up to the challenge. Is this it?
Infact although space may be recognised as "cold" the coldest temperature ever recorded was here on earth in a lab at around -260C~ the theory behind absolute zero still as yet has not been achieved and is debateable weather it ever will be as it would have to be devoid of all energy. One could raise the point would it be devoid of all matter too?
You need two points (or one point and the size of one step) to define a scale.
In kelvin's case it is:
0 K is at absolute 0
273.16 K is at the triple point of water
Celius is defined with the same two points, as -273.15 C and 0.01 C. This definition makes the freezing point of water approx. 0 C and the boiling point approx. 99.9839 C
Some of the above may have been shamelessly ripped from Wikipedia. "Degrees" character removed because Slashdot mangles it into "Â".
finally, hardware built with the needs of penguins in mind, Linus is probably shedding tears of joy, icy tears mind
prepare the survey weasels.