23 Nov
2009
23 Nov
'09
5:20 p.m.
lol... that's a good way to put it. I think in some instances they have support for
hot swapping PCI cards as well, so there may be a downtime/reliability angle to their use
as well.
But, for the most part, I agree with your statement... probably has more to do with
desktop programmers trying (not so hard) to do an embedded design.
________________________________
From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 4:16:31 PM
Subject: Re: isa 486 computer-on-a-board type things
On Nov 23, 2009, at 5:11 PM, Brian Lanning wrote:
Nearly all of them do, but they may be on other types of connectors.
Primarily for
embedded applications. They're not intended as
general-purpose "desktop" computers.
Some of them look really proprietary while others seem to have the normal
compliment of PC compatible internal and external ports. I worry about the
bios though. I might have to swap in the bios from a more garden variety
motherboard, if that would even work.
Huh? Why?
Ideally, I'd like to buy one with all
the memory and processors already installed and have it just work like a
normal PC, albeit with a huge number of slots and a goofy form factor.
Well. I'd not get too excited about them. They're just PCs, nothing special.
They were (and still are) used in lots of high-density and embedded applications where the
designers were too lazy to use a real embedded computer. There's nothing particularly
special about these machines.
-Dave
--Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL