SFF server platform

[David Bandel]

On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 18:12:22 -0500, Kurt Wall <kwall at kurtwerks.com> wrote:
> On Saturday 05 February 2005 17:47, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> > David Bandel wrote:
> > > I rent boxes like this.  Here's what I get:
> > > at CaseOutlet (http://www.caseoutlet.com/):
> > > ITX 2677R using a CL1000 motherboard (two ethernet ports).  I then
> > > put in either another ethernet card or a frame relay card (you'll
> > > need to buy the riser card for this).  I buy neither CD-ROM nor
> > > floppy, but do get either a 40Gb hdd or (better) a 1Gb flash RAM,
> > > 128Mb RAM.
> 
> > Very interesting link.
> > Very very newbie questions:
> > a.  I assume that, with an appropriate wireless card, one can use
> > this box to form an all wireless network and avoid the extra ethernet
> > port? b.  w/ no CD rom, how do you load an OS?  Format and load the
> > HD elsewhere first?
> 
> I don't know how David does it, but, if you get the flash RAM, you load
> the OS onto the flash and pop that into the case. That's what some our
> customers at work do. In some cases, we create the flash image by
> loading it over an Ethernet connection. I had one board, though, where
> I actually had to "cat" the 4MB kernel and RAM disk image out the
> serial port at 9600bps. The board's boot loader wouldn't handle a
> serial connection faster than 9600bps...
> 
> In the embedded space, it's quite common to load the entire OS onto
> flash and use flash as the disk. Boots real fast that way...

Loading can be a bit tricky, but I use the IDE connector and that
allows you to treat it like a hard drive.

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
            - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto