Intel to introduce new integrated CPU/motherboard solution?

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Phantasm66

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Details are emerging, albeit in most places in chinese, about a new integrated CPU/motherboard solution from Intel. Almost certainly, the CPU component will be based on the new 90 nanometer P4 core. The motherboard will be based on the i845GV core-logic and comes in micro-ITX form-factor. The CPU, of course, cannot be removed from the mainboard, so no upgrades will be possible. The mainboard will offer 1 Parallel ATA-33/66/100 channel, PCI slot, 1 DDR SDRAM DIMM slot and 1 FDD connector. It will be targetted at low-cost low-power systems, and will be code-named Shelton.

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These look interesting - similar to the VIA microITX boards out now. Just wondering if these fit in those little Shuttle cases you see more and more now. The concept is intriguing, but it leaves me with a few concerns. First, you've only got 1 PCI slot. Most people are going to use this for a wireless card I would assume. So, you're stuck with the onboard audio AND video. I'll trust an Intel chipset more than VIA, (nothing personal against VIA) but in the end you are heavily assuming that the onboard audio & video will be good. It's just a tossup on this one.
 
You know what I'm thinking.

Go on. Guess.

Cheap clustering.

That's what I am thinking.

These things probably cost next to nothing, when compared with the price of a full PC. You could buy 10 of them. There are clustering Linux systems that are just on single floppy disks. You boot up and then just leave it. You have one master node that has some beefier hardware. You put a single network card in the PCI slot - or maybe then might even get integrated network adaptors.

You can probably stack these inside some sort of container, or maybe you even get rack mount cases for them.

Anyway, all I am trying to say is that it would not take much at all. I would like to give it a try, time and money permitting.
 
This is really making my head hurt now, thinking about how you could use several of these to build your own cluster.

They would need to be able to be mounted in a rack or something.

But (the headache bit) - I want to run them without their own hard drives. I would want to make them network boot somehow. They would to be able to download their OS into RAM and start running it. Otherwise, you have to put hard drives on each one. You already have to get RAM and possibly a network device and graphics card for each node.

I dunno... I will have to think about this idea and get back to you all. I think it would work. If I do it, I will post a guide on how.
 
good one phantasm, I recently saw some pictures of exactly the concept you just described. I can't recall where I saw it, but here's what I saw: several motherboards stacked on top of each other(must have been at least 10 of them), all connected via an integrated network adapter, no hard drives involved. Even the hub/switch was built right into the stack. it looked pretty cool, whoeved did that cluster took his time to make it look really nice and organized.
 
Wouldn't you have to get a custom power supply with multiple motherboard input cables? Most power supplies I've ever seen only come with one of those cables.
 
I am sure there are things like that on the market if you look. Otherwise, you'd have to plug 10 plugs into it.
 
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