Re: linux as a minicomputer ?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Alan Cox wrote:
> 
>>This is fundamentally the problem with these kinds of schemes -- they
>>get outcompeted on price and availability by the massmarket items.
>>This is part of the very attraction of Linux -- it's running Unix on
>>stock, cheap, hardware.
> 
> The hardware is now massmarket - otherwise I'd agree wholeheartedly. Video
> cards are cheap, USB2.0 cards have 4 root bridges per card.
> 

Oh yes, but the *expensive* part of the machine -- the multiprocessor 
box -- isn't.

Also, when using massmarket systems of more than 2 or 3 monitors you 
start having cabling problems.  VGA connectors aren't impedance matched 
and cause nasty reflections at high resolutions, so they don't extend 
well.  I guess digital video is coming, but is not yet mass market.

	-hpa