Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 21:42:12 -0600 (MDT) From: "Forrest W. Christian" <forrestc@imach.com> To: Soren Kristensen <soren@soekris.com> Cc: norami@unlimited.net, freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Smallest footprint box?? where to get one? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007232111440.9427-100000@workhorse.iMach.com> In-Reply-To: <397A6DC6.AD7DAEFF@soekris.com>
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I would be Very interested in the following. Could probably deal with
100+ units over a year, assuming the price was right and some specific
requirements below would be met:
On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, Soren Kristensen wrote:
> If there is several people interested in that, I would be willing to make a
> design and manufacture them in medium volumes, a little like OEM hardware.
> I was thinking about using maybe a AMD SC520 (133 mhz 486), 2 or 3 ethernet
> ports, 8-32 Mbyte dram, boot/bios flash and compact flash socket. If people
> wants VPN, I could make room for a hardware crypto chip.
I would be happy with the following set of requirements:
ANY 486 or better class processor (clock speed not important)
486 should be more than enough for most things.
10/100 Ethernet Ports (2 at minimum, 3 would be nice)
Clients for some reason like to see the 100MB light lit on
their hubs - even if they are dialing up.
Some sort of "flash" boot - CF tends to be easy to do.
(around 2MB would be bare minimum - 4 would be better)
1 or 2 9 pin serial ports (one at least for serial console)
Useful for (of course) the console and also for modem stuff
No keyboard/Monitor/Mouse ports, unless they were "free"
(meaning included in the chosen chipset)
2 PCMCIA SLOTS -
The reason for this is simple - Each of us have applications
which require something other than the above. For instance,
I will be using these for wireless access devices and I will
need a wavelan card slot - this works good for this.
You can also use it for a modem, or for..... etc. etc. etc.
The bios could be the bare essentials for initializing the chipset and
booting via serial console/flash disk. Depending on the chipset this
could be rather simple.
I have left an important part of this off - that is how to get the
software in the system initially.
I would suggest one or more of the following routes:
1) Floppy drive support (moving parts are bad - and the floppy
interface adds unnessary components)
2) Support for serial loading of flashdisk through code in the BIOS
Good for initial work - bad for upgrades (drag laptop out to site?)
3) Support for loading of flashdisk through network.
I kinda envision a two prong approach - one which is rather "raw"
which can be implemented in bios - not necessarily even using a
protocol like TCP/IP but instead just raw ethernet frames. THe
other would be for upgrades and it would basically be implented
in the OS Running on these.
4) Support for Cloning of PCMCIA memory card to flash memory.
I like this idea for initial code load.
5) And others which I can't think of now...
I would like to make an argument for this to be powered by a 12V external
supply with internal filtering, DC-DC converters, etc, etc, as
needed. When I say 12V I really mean something like 9-18V or 9-24V (Even
better) DC or AC. So it can be not only wall powered with a wall wart
but also solar powered or powered in another environment.
I also think the PCMCIA slots should be not on top of each other - but
instead two single slots side by side.
I envision a box about 1 inch thick, the width of 2 pcmcia slots and
whatever depth is necessary for the components. Something like:
(ASCII ART FOLLOWS - USE NON PROPORTIONAL FONTS)
+----------------------------------+
| O O | <- Optional Mounting Ears
+-+----------------------------------+-+
| |
+-| |= <- Power
| | |
| | |+
| | PCMCIA A || Serial A
| | |+
| | |
+-| |+
| || Serial B
+-| |+
| | |
| | |] Ethernet A
| | PCMCIA B |]
| | |
| | |] Ethernet B
+-| |]
| |
+-+----------------------------------+-+
| O O |
+----------------------------------+
Side View
Eth Eth Ser Ser 12V
+----------------------------------------------+
| [=] [=] \===/ \===/ O |
---+----------------------------------------------+---
(Thinking about this, maybe a parallel port - if cheap - might not be a
bad idea - as you could use this as a print server also)
I would REALLY like to collaborate on this project as I've been thinking
about this for a long long time.
I could probably handle a good chunk of the BIOS work, It sounds like
we've got a hardware geek among us, any people good with metalwork?
- Forrest W. Christian (forrestc@imach.com) AC7DE
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Solutions for your high-tech problems. (406)-442-6648
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