Beowulf of bare motherboards

[Alvin Oga]

hi ya john

On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, John Hearns wrote:

> Someone mention VIA mini-ITXes?
> If I could have the resources, I wouldn't fan out a single PSU
> to several mini-ITX boards. It would be cheap, but introduce a single
> point of failure, and you'd have to cobble somthing together to
> deal with ATX power on/off.

single point of failures is not acceptable if the cost of that
item is small compared to the "overall system"
	- hvac, public utilty point of failure is harder
	to avoid, but can be avoided w/ a data center setup
	on the opposite side of the country

> Funds permitting, one of the small 12V DC-DC PSU per board.

you can use a simple wall adaptor to +12v adaptor
	and a +12vdc to +{various-atx} voltage dc-dc convertor

	www.mini-itx.com sells their proprietory +12v dc-dc convertors
	( $50ea range ) and we're debating what the "cluster/blade" of
	mini-itx mb should look like when its mounted in a standard rack
	or custom rack .. and why one way is better than another .. fun
	stuff ..

- if you want a p4-3Ghz in a mini-itx form factor, than we're back
  to only one mb manufacturer :-)

> Then run a high current 12V supply along the rack.
> Simple cheap relay would do the job of power cycling  also.

"relays" has had the worst reliability of any electromechanical part
( so its been long replaced by transistors :-) especially at high
( currents and low/medium voltages

> On the VIA front, the smaller  nano-ITX form factor boards are due soon.
> Could make nice building blocks.

those nano-itx mb is due out (in production) around may/june time frame
??

c ya
alvin

_______________________________________________
Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org
To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf