Grex Garage Conference

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Grex Garage Item 28: grex has TWICE the power of mnet but...
Entered by lar on Fri Oct 6 20:21:05 UTC 2006:

>2.10 ghz processor compared to mnet's 800 mhz
>512 megs ram compared to mnet's 256
>Matrox video card compared to mnets raggady ole trident( not that it matters)
>BUT they have freebsd compared to open.Freebsd is BETTER!

11 responses total.

#1 of 11 by cross on Fri Oct 6 20:51:21 2006:

The thing about that is, the version of FreeBSD running on M-Net is pretty
ancient.

I'd like a PC server with no video card at all; and no BIOS.  Just a serial
port and a PROM monitor that can load the OS.

#2 of 11 by gull on Fri Oct 6 23:55:32 2006:

My DEC AlphaPC is like that.  Actually, it does have a video card in 
it, an old Matrox Millennium, because I was too lazy to yank the card 
out.  But if it doesn't detect a keyboard it switches over to a serial 
console.  It's got a boot monitor that's a bit like Sun's, except more 
primitive (you can't script it in FORTH like you can Sun's.)  It works 
very well for running a headless server.

I don't know why no one is doing this with x86 architecture machines.  
The closest I've seen is the PC Weasel, which pretends to be a video 
card but is actually a serial interface for a VT100-compatible 
terminal.

#3 of 11 by naftee on Sat Oct 7 02:29:09 2006:

m-net's getting a new system, apparently

#4 of 11 by cross on Sat Oct 7 03:04:57 2006:

Such things do exist for x86 hardware, without the additional use of extra
hardware cards.  Mostly, there are serial console BIOS's and things of that
nature, and then the OS is smart enough to use them....

#5 of 11 by gull on Sat Oct 7 20:25:13 2006:

Yeah, OS support can be a rub.  FreeBSD is smart enough to handle it (it
can do the same sort of keyboard detection.)  If I were running Windows
NT on the AlphaPC I'd be out of luck, of course.

#6 of 11 by cross on Sat Oct 7 20:25:46 2006:

Yeah, that's true....

#7 of 11 by lar on Tue Oct 10 21:11:43 2006:

well how about THIS baby for grex:
http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N2790.TribalFusion/B2030016.7;sz=120x600;clic
k=h
ttp://a.tribalfusion.com/h.click/LRGOJBHHOCNSTNGNJSRLTVMDYOOKGITEGTRQNTPBJHCGO
NDLIFBERVNBWTMUFWKGCRGOJKCJKISOOOGU/;ord=1674143900?
It is a 16 core tyan typhoon.
A "supercomputer on a desktop" they call it.

#8 of 11 by lar on Tue Oct 10 21:14:17 2006:

The above link is busted so google "Tyan Typhoon stuffs 16 cores into
"desktop" "supercomputer"
You have to see this baby!

#9 of 11 by naftee on Wed Oct 11 04:43:49 2006:

hey baby how's the beer

#10 of 11 by tsty on Sun Oct 15 11:01:14 2006:

concatonate the following ....
  
  http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/13/tyan-typhoon-stuffs-16-co
   res-into-desktop-supercomputer/

#11 of 11 by eteepell on Sat Jan 6 00:36:57 2007:

Wouldn't beat my P133 with FreeBSD I'betcha... <duck>

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