Larry McVoy wrote:
> : So for $100 dollars you get a CPU, a network interface, and enough memory to
> : run Linux? Ok, that seems possible.
> :
> : But I don't see why you would want to build that into a disk drive. What do
> : you do if a drive goes bad? It would make more sense to have a little cage
> : running all this stuff that you could hot plug regular drives into. You could
> : spend a little more money and build such a cage that holds a couple drives,
> : then I think it would make perfect sense to run linux on the cage to give you
> : cheap "mini" network servers. I would imagine such devices could sell for
> : around $150-200 for 2-4 drive capacities. They could have a boot prom to
> : netboot a kernel, and wouldn't really need much else.
>
> Suppose I want to run STP down on the drive. Calculate out the cost to do
> that in hardware and then tell me that I couldn't get there both quicker
> and cheaper by putting Linux down there.
I found an 80188 on a Toshiba MK537FB. It was manufactured somewhere
in '93.
I remember we found a 68030 on the 1.6G Digital disks we installed
back in the early nineties.
I consider the "processor" already in place. I can't find any
"recognizable" processors on any modern drives. They all use a
processor core on an ASIC that also does say "IDE interfacing".
Hmm. Just the cost for adding an SODIMM socket? Plus the cost for
freeing enough PCB space. In addtion to that we need a suitable
communications interface.
Roger.
-- ** R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl ** http://www.BitWizard.nl/ ** +31-15-2137555 ** *-- BitWizard writes Linux device drivers for any device you may have! --* * Common sense is the collection of * ****** prejudices acquired by age eighteen. -- Albert Einstein ********- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 15 2000 - 21:00:24 EST