Re: [cobalt-users] Motherboard Supplier?

[error404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

At 07:13 12/06/2002 -0400, you wrote:

> Lets get this thing on a thread of its own...
> There is a review here
> http://www.linuxdevices.com/products/PD9266751279.html
>
> The manufacturer
> http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_mini_itx_spec.jsp?motherboardId=21


OK, since it has it's own thread......

I have been playing / working with "industrial" PC hardware for a few years 
now....

Late last year I started getting dissatisfied with RAQ preformance, and 
having opened them up in the past (more ram etc) I was *very* much reminded 
of a lot of the custom boards made by people like www.advantech.com

The main differences being that for "our" application (we servers) we need 
something that combines low thermal rejection / power consumption with a 1U 
format, where either / or pretty much described the choices available, and 
not having Cobalt style financial backing a custom mainboard was out of the 
question (but whoever was behind the original idea I can empathise with, 
and given the volume made I can see the huge financial margins that must 
have been made on the hardware) so it remained pretty much a back burner 
idea while my RAQs effectively depreciated in the relative performance stakes

Then this VIA Eden came along, immediately it looked like just the job, so 
I chased their tech dept and ensured that the hardware was fully compatible 
with Red Hat (7.2 at the time) and they said it was. So I got one and 
upgraded a RAQ2 that had been relegated to SOHO development use and was 
largely even then being neglected because of the MIPS limitations. It 
worked _brilliantly_ full GUI either by plugging monitor / keyboard into 
the back, or remotely over the network, so a full Gnome / KDE interface. 
980 bogomips puts it *bang* up with a RAQ4 and my mini-tower AMD 450 server 
that was dragooned in for SOHO development work where the RAQ2 MIPS didn't 
cut it.
This is a _seriously_ impressive upgrade for something that costs UK£80 and 
takes a couple of hours to botch.

I have been back in touch with VIA and their Distro channel and appraised 
them of all the above, and said that I would like to do the whole process 
again, but this time no botches, do the job properly with step by step 
documentation  such that anyone with half a brain could repeat it. VIA / 
Distro of course know a good thing for sales when they hear it, so they 
have promised me some mainboard to do this with (the initial euro 
allocation of (I believe) 100,000 units of these things sold like hotcakes) 
and in return I have promised to "open source" the complete documentation 
of the process and host it only my only remaining on-line RAQ2 at 
http://213.38.74.211/

Since the Cobalt GUI is SUn/Cobalt specific I will take this as far as 
getting a running web/mail server and installing Plesk

Due to the nature of this project anyone who goes this route should 
understand a few things.

1/ You are _NOT_ going to end up with _ANY_ cobalt product.
2/ You are _NOT_ going to end up with a server product that uses the Cobalt 
GUI. (unless you wanna port it yourself)
3/ You are _NOT_ going to end up with _ANY_ sort of warranty as a server 
appliance.
4/ You are _NOT_ going to be able to use the Cobalt front panel interface 
LCD / buttons. (unless you wanna breadboard it)

5/ You _ARE_ going to end up with an _EXTREMELY_ cheap and viable 
alternative to throwing and RAQ2 on the scrapheap, or converting a RAQ2 or 
RAQ3 or RAQ4 into a server that bogomip wise is on a par with a RAQ4, but 
uses all generic (therefore cheap) PC hardware (eg RAM etc) without being 
fussy, and which will run a "proper" full GUI interface and the very latest 
Red Hat 7.3 / PHP / MySQL / etc / etc while still retaining the physical 1U 
form factor of the original Cobalt enclosure and the low thermal (and 
noise) rejection required for a server appliance.

6/ In effect, your donor RAQ is donating the 1U case itself, the PSU, the 
hard disk (if you choose to retain it) and bugger all else. (basically you 
just throw away (or sell) the Cobalt mainboard) Given that a fully working 
original RAQ2 on e-bay is cheaper than a new 1U case, this makes 
_excellent_ sense. For a RAQ3/4 it makes less financial sense, so you need 
one of the other reasons such as wanting Gnome, or wanting to replace a 
dead Cobalt mainboard instead of buying a whole new Cobalt XTR

7/ You will end up with a "home brew" server, not a Cobalt, which I have 
chosen to call an "XRAQ2" as in "Ex-RAQ2"

I do not see this as a viable or likely alternative to buying a new Cobalt 
product, particularly for someone who wants to run a full 72U cabinet full 
of identical hardware.

I do see this as a viable alternative to simply throwing away an otherwise 
non-upgradeable and pretty obsolete server product, which is sinful to 
waste. It is entirely up to you whether you feel happy putting it back into 
commercial service, it wouldn't bother me.

Once you undertake this course of action, unless you own other, standard, 
Cobalt products too, then this list ceases to be appropriate.
Once you undertake this course of action then any and all support for the 
"XRAQ" should be gotten somewhere other than this list / Cobalt

I have thought about the legal aspects of this, Sun / Cobalt doesn't seem 
to have the _slightest_ interest in obsolete equipment such as the RAQ2, 
and since I am personally not going to throw away a 4 year old RAQ2 and buy 
a RAQ550 to replace it there are no other options available within Cobalt 
corporate space, so I don't see that this is hurting anyone or costing 
Cobalt any money....

cheers


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 jb@xxxxxxxxxxxx / www.surfbaud.org / 2002
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