> Yeah - time for a status report ;) > > How is this going Volker?
Fair enough :) I had a range of applications in mind, but I might have to disappoint you in that it was more a feasibility study than having any money to spend (unfortunately). The first use is: if I got sick of the desktop-sized box doing my firewalling, how much would it cost me to replace it with something low-power, quiet, and small. There were previous discussions on this list, but without remembering "soekris" I didn't dig it up. 3* ethernet is required for a server. As a benchmark, a P-MMX-233 would be worth about $50, cdrom drives are cheap, and it's pretty hassle-free, unless one hits a buggy chipset which Linux doesn't support properly, plus 2* $15 NICs. Power consumption is in the order of 40W (which I expected to be higher). Could be a bit tight for squid (but that might want to run on the server instead). The Falcon CR51 would be hassle-free as well (assuming Linux doesn't have issues with its hardware), cost about $300, but needs a half-height(!) dual-port ethernet card as well (do they exist?), plus memory and hard disk - probably close on $500. Power consumption couldn't be much less than 40W as the hardware is pretty identical, but it's faster and takes more memory. There's a bit of a "cool" factor. The Soekris is no doubt cool, but putting $DISTRO's CD in and expecting it to just go is a bit hopeful. The manual is missing large bits. First problem: either fork out for a laptop hard disk to install the system on, a big enough flash card thing, or fiddle a power supply and some connector to connect a standard hard disk. I am sure the only reason it doesn't take a standard hard disk is because the board, powered by a simple plug-pack, can't supply power for it. Fiddling with PC power supplies is a pain and can get expensive. Installing $DISTRO on an additional (flash or laptop) disk on a desktop box won't be straightforward either. One would have to go for the net4801 with a 586-class <=266MHz CPU, a 486-133 simply doesn't cut it (unless you have the time to wait, but 64MB aren't that future-safe any more either). Logging to flash doesn't really work. At US$265 plus shipping plus plugpack plus laptop harddisk - ouch, plus a lot of time spent (in comparison) to make it work. There may be others like the Soekris for a better price, maybe. It's not really ideal. Looks like a <$100 retired old office PC is the best option in terms of time and money. :| My second application for something small involves a kind of an embedded system. Requirements are not totally defined, but include F/O networking option (100M fine - iosolation required), full-height big PCI card(s) for custom circuitry (ADCs etc), and a fast CPU at least P-II class, or powerpc, connection option for GPS receiver. The main board should have off-the-shelf availability (like soekris), all components except the custom-PCI cards standard stuff. I *need* low interrupt latency in the order of 1 microsecond. Linux preferable but not strictly required - vxworks should work too. I don't know how much fiddling with Linux would be required, the embedded and/or real-time versions may be preferable. I must have highest-priority interupt routines assigned to controlling the additional hardware, and Linux has to wait - if it doesn't cope with that, it's a dead idea. It may turn out that it's better to forget about the "small" and use a standard PC case + hardware instead. Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
