On 5/12/13 3:42 PM, "Charlie Peck" <charl...@cs.earlham.edu> wrote:
>On May 12, 2013, at 3:11 PM, "Lux, Jim (337C)" <james.p....@jpl.nasa.gov> >wrote: > >> ... >> Of some interest would be whether the LittleFE folks think that using >>rPis >> instead Via Mobos would be worthwhile. By the time you stick a SD card >>in >> the Pi and arrange power supplies, I'm not sure the price difference is >> all that much. > >I sent a couple of students off with rPi boards recently to see if we >could do just that. Unfortunately their report wasn't good, they had >reliability problems and having only the HDMI video made working with >them difficult. Yes, that's what's stopped me fooling with rPI. I suppose there's some sort of HDMI>VGA converter or some other workaround, but that takes it out of the "stuff I can do with things I find in my garage" bucket. I'm not about to go out and spend $30 on a converter box to use a $30 computer. And all my HDMI or DVI compatible monitors are already in use. >We're thinking about looking at PC104 formfactor boards again to see if >we can find something in that range that would work. Our goal is to >produce something that's truly carry-on (we have a MicroFe design now >that's 2 Mini-ITX boards in a Pelican briefcase that BCCD developers use >but we'd like more cores). > >> And LittleFE is truly commodity.. The architecture doesn't care which >> Mini-ITX mobo you get.. If you want to stack up Intel D2550s instead of >> the Via boards, it's no real matter. > >The latest model of LittleFe does use Atom D2550's, and we're looking at >AMD based APU units for the future. One of our design goals is to >provide a platform that people could easily build any Mini-ITX based >system on, we sell the frame kit separately for just this reason. Aha.. You should be able to fit quite a few Mini-ITX boards into a "carry on" compatible Pelican case. I just did a bunch of stuff with a Pelican 1510 (the largest that is guaranteed carry on) and a Mini-ITX based embedded PC is inside (in a M350 enclosure from Mini-box). I think you could fit at least 6 Mini ITXes in there. They're 6.7x6.7" and the I/O shield is 1" high. The 1510 is 19.75x11x7.6". I think you could stack 8 high in the 11 inch dimension. Cooling would be a challenge.. You might want to go with one of the aluminum cases, or cut holes for fans, or space them out a bit. Actually, power supply might be the biggest challenge. They probably draw 50-60W running full out, so 8 of them is 400W. That's a potentially bulky power supply. > >charlie _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
