Cases for Multiple Single Board Computers? 11
dewboy asks: "We're trying to set up a rack of SBC's (Single Board Computers) that will allow us to plug a certain number of SBC's into a backplane which will provide power. All interfaces (mouse, keyboard, VGA, Enet, etc) are on the faceplates of the cards, so all they really need is power. All we've been able to find so far are chasses that support a single SBC and a (4-20 slot) backplane. What we'd like is a chassis that supports 20 SBC's. Has anyone found anything like this?"
4 SBCs in a single rackmount case (Score:1)
Chassis (Score:1)
I see one other problem, and that is all of the SBC's I've seen have parts that stick out (memory, or the processor in the case of Slot1's), and cause them to take up at least 2 slots. One system, I lost 4 slots to the SBC. It had a slot1 processor on one side, a big heatsink on the BX chipset on the other side, and the cards I needed to put next to it were full length with daughercards.
I'd check with http://www.amer.com/ and http://www.lannerinc.com/ and see if they can point you to something that'd help. Amer.com used to have a picture in their catalog of their 6U multisystem chassis with SBC's in every slot, but I don't think it'd work that way.
Worst case, get the 20 slot backplane, and cut some traces yourself.
Lastly, watch the cooling issues, and make sure your power supply is sized well.
Hopefully this helps some.
medusa? (Score:1)
hmm.. (Score:1)
Roll your own? (Score:1)
If you are making your own plug compatable SBC, just use the power only and ignore the rest of the lines.
Another option, is get wirewrap set of sockets, and roll your own buss
Possibly this? (Score:1)
www.emacinc.com [emacinc.com]
Under their catagory of SBC PC Addons, they have an item listed as "20 slot Multi-system Rackmount Industrial PC Chassis."
There is no picture, but they can (hopefully) send you the info.
They are called a rack I believe :P (Score:1)
Re:They are called a rack I believe :P (Score:1)
Depending on budget, rolling your own cases may be an option as well.
-- LoonXTall
Computer Telephony gear? (Score:2)
Such devices are also popular for computer telephony, so you can also search for sites which refer to that. But first start with Computer Telephony [telecomlibrary.com] magazine. They have buyer's guides and related info.
If you haven't bought the SBCs yet, also consider VME devices...
Power usage (Score:2)
And more fun: cooling! At 100W/CPU, you'll need a lot of airflow to keep it below 55C, which is where things like the hard drives start to burn out. And probably the power supply too.
20CPUs in a single chassis isn't going to happen. 4 is a better possibility, since you can load-share 2 400W power supplies in a 19" rack.
Given space requirements, you can do two 400W supplies, but probably not many more than that.
Re:They are called a rack I believe :P (Score:2)
This isn't solving the problem of housing all the boards in one case all on the same backplane. Using a rack full of boxes isn't always the best solution. Although putting them all on the same backplane isn't much different. Sometimes you just don't need everything that comes with a complete rackmount system. There are products available that take .5u per system, 32 systems in 16u
I'm curious about this kind of configuration also. Althogh I just want to pack as many cpu's in as small of space as possible and have them all on a fast switched backplane for comunication.
SBS-BIT3 has some solutions. They have a 20 slot ISA passive backplane that has 4 segments.
www.sbs-bit3.com [sbs-bit3.com]
and some others;
www.arisecomputer.com [arisecomputer.com]
www.apw-elsol.com [apw-elsol.com]
www.ziatech.com [ziatech.com]
good article on cPCI systems and lists some other resources..
www.telecomlibrary.com [telecomlibrary.com]