Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 11:53:16 -0500 From: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) To: hackers@freebsd.org Cc: isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Frame Relay and FreeBSD Message-ID: <199602151653.LAA00260@etinc.com>
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>One thing to keep in mind is that PCs also come in 4"x4"x4" cubes that >are expandible via PC-104 bus cards. Something like this could easily >stack like firewood to fill a small space in little time. Put a >ramdisk or flashram card inot this mix, run FreeBSD on it and you have >a nice little box. I believe that these boxes are 100% PC compatible, >but am not 100% positive. They are showing up in places like the >Circuit Cellar magazine. I don't hink you'll find a pentium on one of >these boxes, but I recall seeing 386 and 486 in them. > The real point here is that many "routers" are just re-packaged PCs...the "smaller is better" argument applies if you're willing to make the necessary trade-offs. Frankly, I'd rather have the benefits of a good sized hard drive and expandabiltiy than to save a cubic foot of space. Rememberr that your talking about 2 very different kinds of users....service providers and end users. From an end users perspective there is no way that any stand-alone router can give me more utility than my single-box freebsd server/router/gateway. Even if service providers use the "big net rack mount" type units in your facility, they can score points with their customers by giving them a rather impressive server/router solution. And with protocols like Frame relay there are 50-100 times the number of end user units than there are service provider units. dennis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emerging Technologies, Inc. http://www.etinc.com Synchronous Communications Cards and Routers For Discriminating Tastes. 56k to T1 and beyond. Frame Relay, PPP, HDLC, and X.25 for BSD/OS, FreeBSD and LINUX
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