[plug] Linux thin clients

[Nick Bannon]

On Fri, Aug 22, 2003 at 07:04:02PM +0800, Craig Ringer wrote:
> Arrggh! Only one PCI slot. That nearly doubles the price for what I want 
> - I'd need to buy a dual-port NIC like a dual EEPro/100 at $500. Ouch.
[...]

There are cheaper cards... I haven't actually layed eyes on them yet,
but I bought some older tulip quad fast ethernet cards cheap off ebay.
(and had them shipped to a friend, to send them on here in due course)

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=lemonheader&sort=3&page=1&rows=150&since=-1&showpics=0&stab=0

USD$15-$20 each, plus a fair bit of shipping...

I've seen the equivalent new for USD$99-$129, and you can find quad
e100's for about that, too.

The other thing I've come across recently is - Netway Computers
recently picked up a bunch of cheap little Geode boards. Bernard and
I brought some along to Monday night's PLUG meeting.
http://www.netwaycomputers.com/contact_us.asp

Just the thing for a little terminal server, modem router, MP3/Vorbis
player...  Sadly they don't have an exposed PCI bus, but they're still
very interesting. The expansion bus is PC104 (which is just ISA in a
different form factor).

Does anyone have any PC104 gear going cheap? <hopeful look>

Little 233MHz boards, <8W, come with a metal case, 5V PSU, 32MB RAM
_and_ a 5GB laptop drive for $99 (!). Let's see how long that price
holds!
http://www.advantech.com/products/Model_Detail.asp?model_id=1-D6LZC

As featured in the PSU PC:
http://mini-itx.com/projects/psu-pc/

What would be really handy is a ;

 * PC104 to ISA adaptor;
   http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2748472918
   http://www.arstech.com/pc104.htm

 * PC104 to PCMCIA adaptor;
   USD$100-$170

 * 44 pin 2mm spacing laptop IDE cable to 40 pin (plus power) full-size
   IDE device cable. I have an adaptor that goes the other way (laptop
   drive in a desktop machine) but the one I want seems very rare...

No electronics in any of these to speak of, perhaps we could clone them
ourselves.

Nick.

-- 
   Nick Bannon   | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick-sig at rcpt.to | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal