[SGVLUG] Idea for New PC

[Robert Leyva]

I'll open it at home, on my Debian workstation, using Open Office then :)

Too afraid any malicious crawlies might destroy my work's M$ system.

> Heh heh heh -- I somewhat expected a knee-jerk reaction in response to
> posting a WORD attachment to a Linux list [and the HTML version won't be
> far behind, especially considering it only added marginal "niceness" to
> the formatting of the content] but that aside, let's see what we're
> talking about:
>
>
> -----Original Message----- Of Arthur Baldwin
>
> [...] pasted version:
>
>
> JCBrick
>
> *        Core 2 Duo Processor with at least 800 MHz FSB (Ultra low power
> laptop type CPU soldered on board with fan-less heatsink)
>
> *        Must have 2 or more Gigabyte LAN ports
>
> *        Must have optional power supply designs for either car
> operation or home operation.
>
> *        All chips must be reliably soldered onto motherboard - no
> sockets.
>
> [TE] OK so far -- you're obviously conserned about vibration -- you
> might want to do searches on "industrial" computers, i.e., computers
> used on machine-shop floors and the like (where vibration from heavy
> machinery will exist...)
>
> *        Must have two high speed solid state "disk drives" using "thumb
> drive chips" (one 16 GB and one 8 GB minimum) soldered onto motherboard
> with no USB conversion stages to slow down data transfer.  (drive
> letters C and D).
>
> [TE] why "two drives"?  Again, from a Linux/Unix perspective, all disk
> space is a single "drive" (from the "root" on downwards...)  At the
> physical layer, partitioning and multiple spindles (physical drives) may
> exist, but often they are conglomerated using RAID and LVM (volume
> management) so they appear to the rest of the system/OS as a single
> "device"
>
> [TE] Also, I don't think you'll be able to get away from the USB
> conversion -- the "thumb drive 'chips'" are already designed with a USB
> interface as the control circuit
>
> [TE] finally, specifically referencing them as "C and D" implies use of
> Windows -- that won't get far on a Linux oriented list...
>
> *        Must be able to boot from any USB 2.0 port (need at least 4
> ports), a PXE device (LAN), or either of the two solid state drives
> onboard.
>
> *        Must have 4 GB high speed RAM in two standard slots.
>
> *        Must NOT have any Keyboard, Mouse, standard serial, parallel,
> FDD, SATA, or IDE interfaces
>
> [TE] Again, why not?  Sure, all of these can be found in USB versions,
> but declaring them as "forbidden" might eliminate an otherwise
> satisfactory off-the-shelf design...
>
> *        Needs to have MIDI - IN and MIDI - OUT ports
>
> [TE] likewise, the requirement to have THIS very /specific/ type of port
> seems a little odd -- why not use a USB/Midi converter?   [results of a
> simple search show this to be about $30 --
> http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=usb+midi&oe=utf-8&cid=229411050
> 553829399#ps-sellers]
>
> *        Must have high quality onboard Audio and Video (with hardware
> 3D Acceleration - prefer ATI)
>
> *        Must have built in IR transceiver device that is exposed on
> front panel
>
> [TE] have you considered bluetooth?  I would imagine a standard "remote
> control" could be adapted to BT technology fairly easily, and by going
> wireless you eliminate the need for "line of sight", so you could put
> this BEHIND the home stereo or in the trunk and still be able to control
> it from a handheld device.  You could even use a bluetooth "mouse" [or a
> combo unit, such as the wiimote]
>
> *        Unit must be as small as possible
>
> *        Unit should not have any expansion slots of any kind
>
> [TE] you're limiting yourself here -- again, with the discussion of what
> ports should or should NOT be on the box, have you condiered interfaces
> such as HP-IB [a.k.a. IEEE 488] -- there is still a ton of industrial
> control and measurement devices out on the market that use this type of
> interface
>
>
> Applications include:
>
> *        Media Center Controller for multiple component Home
> Entertainment Centers
> *        Home Control Systems
> *        Recording Studio Control Systems
> *        Automotive Media Centers
> *        Vehicle Control Systems
> *        Family Internet Sharing Control/Filtering/Monitoring Systems
>
> [TE] what problem are you solving with this that isn't already addressed
> by similar dedicated items?  (ok, perhaps the automotive ones...)  Home
> control systems from X-10 and Smarthome are certainly adequate; internet
> control and content monitoring is now regularly included in devices from
> linksys and D-link, not to mention the large number of "home grown"
> solutions using linux on "old throwaway equipment"
>
> [TE] oh, and for recording studios, you might want to check out
> "Indamixx" [http://www.indamixx.com/]  They are local, and a few months
> back we had the inventor showing it off here at a meeting.  Admittedly,
> his price wasn't what you were looking for [he was struggling to break
> the $1K barrier -- in fact, I see the base price *today* is $1200] but
> also remember this is a /highly/ specialized device with a /very small/
> target market (DJ's and podcasters...) so there isn't enough "volume" to
> get a good price
>
> Target Wholesale Cost
>
> Less than $300 each in quantities over 1000 with 4 GB RAM included and
> with metal box enclosure (fanless heatsink).
>
>


-- 
"Knowledge is Power" -- Francis Bacon

Robert Leyva
mrflash818 at geophile.net