SETI@Home -- Running On A PCI Card 264
levendis writes: "This has got to be the strangest piece of hardware I have ever seen. It's a PCI card with 6 embedded processors and a flash rom containing Linux and the SETI@home client. The manufacturer claims it can process 6 SETI work units in 16 hours, completely independent of the host CPU."
This is a truly intriguing piece of equipment. I especially liked this bit from the FAQ: "SETI accelerator® uses military surplus components. The chip used on this board was used for target vector calculations in the terrain following radar (TFR) component of the PR-964 Cruise Missile (NATO Codename SAMOWAR)." I wonder whether they could release similar cards adaptable to the emerging pay-for-cycles outfits like ProcessTree. If yes, maybe the card could pay for itself after a while.
Re:Hmm.. (Score:1)
SETI, why not RC4/DES/RSA/etc... (Score:1)
Or DES, or RSA, etc etc...Not nesseciarily for use on one of the "public" contests if you know what I mean....
Military Surplus Processors? (Score:1)
doesn't look real (Score:1)
SETI as demo vehicle (Score:1)
Definitely an interesting idea to use it as an demonstration example for their card. But for the SETI@home project, its not needed. They already have more processing power than they can deal with.
Tom
Hoax ? Check the HTML codes. (Score:1)
mail.ru is a hotmail like email provider !
Russia + mail.ru == hoax ?!
Re:Hmm.. (Score:1)
The "average person"?? (Score:1)
Your Forgetting Something (Score:1)
Your forgetting something.... You don't need a $1000 box to start with. I have a P60 sitting here, and a ISA vid card, and 4 free PCI slots. Grab ANY $30 box with PCI slots [deepspacetech.com], and your set to go.
Re:Forget SETI gimme BEOWULF (Score:1)
Can I use more than one board in my computer?
A: No. Although the chip, due to its original usage, is designed as extremely low power consuming, this would produce too much heat. Also the chip uses a 3-digit binary to identify in the array, which would allow a maximum of 8 chips on one computer.
My Mistake (Score:1)
Can I use more than one board in my computer?
A: No. Although the chip, due to its original usage, is designed as extremely low power consuming, this would produce too much heat. Also the chip uses a 3-digit binary to identify in the array, which would allow a maximum of 8 chips on one computer.
So much for my empty P60 slots...
One card per machine... (Score:1)
Perhaps your willingness to dedicate $2000 to the SETI project is to be commended, though
Re: Hoax? Uh, guys... (Score:1)
Not surprising, since the domain name's only been live for a coupla weeks..
Anywhere?
Yeah, right!
I'm betting this is a shuck!
t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®
Re: Hoax? Uh, guys... (Score:1)
A WebFerret search (did I say that WebFerret is one damn fine app? Too bad the parent company got eaten by ZDNet...) for "PR-964 cruise missile" turned up absolutely nothing anywhere on the web, and a search for "PR-964" turned up 143 hits (when I stopped it..) -- none of which had anything to do with NATO or cruise missles..
(For the curious, the most common hit seemed to be a reference to a 1987 Compliance Test Report from the NHTSA regarding the pounds of force applied to the right femur (964 pounds, to be exact) of a crash dummy in a 1987 Chrysler Le Baron 2 door...)
But I digress..
That whole deal is a scam!
t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®
Re: Hoax? Uh, guys... (Score:1)
I doubt that the FedEx driver is gonna stand around and let you install the board to see if it actually *works* -- so you get a board, and pay for it, and the driver leaves, and...
t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®
Re:This will really help... (Score:1)
--
Re:This is a Geek Toy, Not ffor the Average Bear.. (Score:1)
You mean like this [ancort.ru]? How about RAM encryption [ancort.ru] while you're there?
--
Re:Is this for real? (Score:1)
There is, in fact, a NATO codename Samovar - it stands for "SAM Obstruction in Velocity, Angle and Range" - an electronic warfare weapons pod.
Re:Doesn't this defeat the purpose? (Score:1)
PR-964 Cruise Missile (NATO Codename SAMOWAR) (Score:1)
Noir Leather
...WRIST 1" WIDE W/SNAP HOOK $23.00PR 964 BONDAGE RESTRAINT - ANKLE -...
...RESTRAINTS W/LOCKS AND 2 CHAINS $45.00PR L-BIT LEATHER BIT - ONE BUCKLE...
www.w2.com/bondagegear.html - 3k - Cached - Similar pages
----------
Google results 1-1 of 1 for NATO SAMOWAR. Search took 0.25 seconds.
Ostatni tydzien z Polski.
...plycie XIX-wiecznego stolika pod samowar, odkryl kolekcjoner-antykwariusz...
...Tak bylo i z wstapieniem Polski do NATO. Dunczycy jako pierwsi zgodzili...
polishnews.com/fulltext/hotnews/lastweek.html - 65k - Cached - Similar pages
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:1)
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:1)
Re:Doesn't this defeat the purpose? (Score:2)
This card is a good idea, as it will likely lead to more PCI based special purpose multi-cpu cards for a variety of purposes.
Read the link. It isn't x86. (Score:2)
All they do is decode SETI units. Nothing more.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
Re:So what purpose does it have? (Score:2)
It isn't aimed at the average person. It's aimed at people with lots of money and no life 8)
Is SETI@Home PCI card actually x86 on PCI card? (Score:2)
So? Is it a embedded x86?
---
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com." The purpose of that site was not known. -- MSNBC 10-26-1999 on MS crack
But .. WHY?! (Score:2)
But, I would MUCH rather see this technology harnessed to a wider audiance than SETI (even if you LIKE SETI, you have to admit, it's for SPARE cycles).
Porting other apps would rock, like old Fortran number crunchers for Econ. or chem. where people are spending well into 6 figures for boxes that just sit and crank out projected debt, market analysis, molecular minimization....
If it's really good, and there's a bright programmer out there, I'll bet we soon find a BioTech firm doing similar hardware for drug discovery. (Yes, graphics matters for viewing molecules, but there are still trillions of cycles out there crunching away at little numbers problems from tiny programs trying to get the best numbers).
My fear is that, someone will do something extreemly similar, propriatry, and sell it at 20x the price or more. It'd be cool to see something like this hacked and then used on the University level in science departments with limited budjets to do a much wider range of research. In fact, it's really not ne The FAQ says it's already running Linux on a Flash....
Just my two cents. And what do I know, I can't even find the price on this beast to see if it's really worth it!
Re:Hmm.... (Score:2)
Re:Hmmm... Why not RC5? (Score:2)
But only during the winter.
Re:Who wouldnt want a commie cruise missle brain? (Score:2)
When it comes to inventively devious covert operations, the Russians are in a class of their own. Suppose that comes from everyone playing chess.
Sure sounds like a hoax to me, too. (Score:2)
Bruce
Re:Sure sounds like a hoax to me, too. (Score:2)
So, here's a possible interpretation: they copy their flash-stored client into a kernel buffer created by their driver. Escape points are poked into the code during the copy in order to occasionally pass control back to their ROM routines for communicating with the vector processors, ie. removing completed work units and loading new ones. So, in effect a dynamic composite client runs in brief bursts in kernel mode, although all the heavy computation is actually in the vector processors and so doesn't take up significant host cycles. And finally, there would have to be a proxy client running in user space to relay communications to and from the in-kernel client.
That would be an odd architecture and very difficult to accomplish (poking a user-space binary to get it to execute in kernel sounds like a nightmare, much more than just ELF loading), but presumably is not impossible. The only part that this doesn't seem to address is client upgrades, since their ROM routines would have to be very client-specific for this to work and so there would be little hope of it working with another client binary.
Although we can only speculate at this stage, it's fun to do. Although it could be a hoax (chips from missiles is wonderfully inventive), it can't be a scam, since they say the item is COD.
Probing the nerd psychology :-) (Score:2)
I wonder how many doctorates will be awarded for the analysis of such technical community communication and behaviour? More than a few, I bet.
Re:Allright. (Score:2)
~luge
But... (Score:2)
Pointless (Score:2)
---
seumas.com
Re:Reasons why this is a hoax (Score:2)
HmmMMMmmm...The Jedi to amuse Yoda, you are.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Ah, Ukraine. (Score:2)
More seriously, I'd guess this is a way to grab attention for what is, after all, a PCI card that can hold a 6-low-power processor Linux parallel computer. The SETI client in flash ROM is sort of silly, but burn your own algorithms into it and you have a mighty interesting coprocessor similar to the sort of things Microway makes, for $500.
How 'bout a PCI card w/ 6xsocket 7's? (Score:2)
*That* might be useful.
mark
Both images are fakes (Score:2)
That aside, can anyone shed any more light on the company or the product? Is it a scam, or are the pictures just an example of bad judgement on behalf of the marketing deptarment?
S@h v3 (+I'm the sort of person that would buy 1) (Score:2)
However, I'd buy one, fully decked out with 6 processors, if indeed it's not a hoax. I could put it in my already fairly tweaked was-a-P75-now-has-a-K6-2-300 which was upgraded mostly for S@h.
And if they do a USB version (since bandwidth should be pretty low) I'll chain as many off my portable as I can afford. I've got 2 spare USB ports on my 4-port hub. I'd happily drop up to A$1,000 on it now, and another A$500 every couple of months.
Re:So who else thinks this is FAKE? (Score:2)
If you've ever used one of those you would know that nothing bearing this name could be fake -- the things produce so much heat it's almost impossible to stay near one...
and they make marvelous tea!
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:2)
--Shoeboy
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:2)
What'd be much nicer than a dual g4 would be a dual k7 since the k7's got an essentially equivalent fp unit, adequate SIMD extensions, twice the clock speed, has better vid card support and isn't crippled by MacOS 9.
--Shoeboy
Re:beautiful... (Score:2)
There used to be Macs that could run MacOS 7 and Windows 95 at the same time with processors dedicated to each, but it didn't catch on back then. Mainly because price/performance blew, at least in the Apple incarnation.
But perhaps now, where Celerons are cheap, fast, and plentiful, the idea can be resurrected.
Re:Additional SETI Clients On Other Processors? (Score:2)
I hate to break it to you, but most graphics cards do not have a "great FPU". In fact, many graphics cards don't have a FPU at all. You're graphics card handles rendering, which is an integer intensive process. Transformation and lighting (T&L) is a floating-point intensive process, but until very recently it was handled entirely by the main processor. Your voodoo certainly doesn't do it. There's also triangle setup, which is floating point and is usually handled by modern graphics cards, but it is secondary to rendering and I don't believe the triangle setup engines of most graphics cards are especially powerful.
Now, back to your original question. I still don't think it's possible. Yes, there are some graphics cards with powerful FPUs (like the GeForce), but they are extremely specialized pieces of hardware. They are designed to do one thing and one thing only. Even if it were possible to access the T&L engine of a GeForce directly it would require new drivers specifically designed for this purpose and writing those drivers would require intimate knowledge of how the hardware works. In other words, don't expect to see this happen unless Nvidia decides to release the complete, fully documented specs for their chip, and that's something which just isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Re:Additional SETI Clients On Other Processors? (Score:2)
The key was that he didn't use the processor at all. Instead, he took advantage of the blitter coprocessor (copper) and it's ability to bitmask things together and move data. Quite clever.
Yes, the current video cards have massive speciallized processors. I guess the question is that are they so specialized that they make approximations about geometry and color that would make other uses difficult?
Hoax board? (Score:2)
- The slot cover on both just looks fake, and don't seem to be attached at the right angle on the card.
- In both images, I for one would like to know why there appears to be an Adaptec logo in the lower-left corner.
- How do you add processors when they appear to be packaged (I can't remember the acronym at the moment) with extremely small pins that need to be soldered to the board with an expensive rework station?
- How would a stock SETI client run on a custom-architecture missile control chip?
If these really are photos of cards that do exist, I apologize, but there are just too many technical details that are off here.BRTB
Re:So what purpose does it have? (Score:2)
Probably things like Discrete Cosine Transform
(DCT) thus mpeg encoding movies, encoding MP3
files on the fly
Re:E.T. = NSA? (Score:2)
Re:Is it approved by SETI@Home? (Score:2)
Q: Is this the unauthorized patch Berkley is warning not to use?
A: No. This solution is strictly hardware based. It has a standard unmodified linux text client implemented in the flash-rom of the chip. This memory was mainly used to store target and routing information. Apart from the basic drivers, the only software used is a batch-like procedure that assigns the work units to the processor.
It's like adding another computer with each processor, without having to buy all the I/O and power supply components which you dont need for SETI@home.
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:2)
Re:Can you say "Hoax"? (Score:2)
Retarded manufacturer (Score:2)
The stupidity of the device is that the SEETI@Home project has enough computer power to process packets in faster than real-time. Should have done a 'is this a product we need' study first.
So what purpose does it have? (Score:2)
hmm (Score:2)
It wont work. (Score:2)
Embedded Super Computers? Why Not? (Score:2)
I began to realize, there is a lot to a PC that you don't need... so I began to look into building an embedded super computer...
I posted to "Ask Slashdot", but it never made it...
What exactly would it take to make an embedded super computer? A network of systems on a chip? A bunch of celerons tied together?
Anyone have any input? www sites?
Thanks!
Re:Can you say "Hoax"? (Score:2)
Re:Doesn't this defeat the purpose? (Score:2)
As you can see, SETI is not requiring that the @home clients to be run on the same platforms as illustrated by it's already massive list of hardware and software platforms [berkeley.edu] supported; they are only requiring that the clients process data using the same procedures for scientific control and validity.
Others may be considering about what type of person would consider purchasing the $US89 and or $129 cards. Well take a look at the results of the official SETI@home survery [berkeley.edu] which states that 59.09%of those running it are doing so for the reason of "finding ET for the good of humanity." As one AC has already pointed out, this type of valuable work is by "many people taken quite seriously." I suspect that many of those willing to buy will this card will consider it as a indirect donation to the SETI@home project by providing more processed data with a side possibility of fame for their efforts. Others, like myself take pride in helping humanity answer one of it's most serious questions, and don't seek gratification or fame. I don't care if I personally find anything - it's the effort that counts.
I'm also just wondering how long before someone starts over clocking these suckers to the extreme to make them even faster. Silicon Graphics (World Rank:1) has babies that can do one work unit in 2.5 hours!
PS: On another side note, I've had this signature for a month now, because I'd like to see Team Slashdot beat Microsoft (7) and MacAddict (8)!
try a multiprocessor board instead (Score:2)
Rather than wasting time on a Seti@home card, they should build more general purpose beowulf cards - something you can stick into your Linux box to add more grunt.
It's not a bad way of using up so called 'obsolete' lower speed processors: put them into a multiprocessor card, put it into your PCI bus, and kerbang you have more grunt.
Forget SETI gimme BEOWULF (Score:2)
-yes I already emailed them asking for this
this reminds me of... (Score:2)
Rack em up (Score:2)
Ok, so I'm not about to run out and buy a card just to support SETI. My electricity bill is high enough already.
Re:Additional SETI Clients On Other Processors? (Score:2)
Systems Administrator
Servu Networks
http://www.servuhome.net
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:2)
It's based on NeXT Step
Which is in turn based on BSD
FreeBSD is based on 4.4 BSD of course
I hear they borrowed FreeBSD code as well
If I had a lot of money, I'd get a cube with MacOS X
NeXT Step is *good*
I probably wouldn't buy this card though
Don't get me wrong, I am all about SETI, and the space program in general
But for my money, I want processor power I can use for other stuff as well
This sounds very familiar... (Score:2)
Well, not THAT familiar, but someone used a similar concept (processors on a PCI board) here [totalimpact.com]. I believe this was posted on Slashdot a few weeks ago.
Anyway, this card is a LOT cheaper.
Re:E.T. = NSA? (Score:2)
Yeah, that's what they want you to believe.
HOAX?? Who cares.... (Score:2)
Admittedly, the set up costs for manufacturing such a beast are prohibitive, but the possibility of an old pc with all its slots loaded up with these boards each holding 6 $30 PI's or even $10 486's is just fun to contemplate.
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:2)
Sometimes you want multiple processors with SIMD on each one.
Like the Pentium III?
Just another BeOS geek...
hacking this card (Score:2)
I'm a newb when it comes to posting here. Give me some slack.
the real question (Score:2)
So who else thinks this is FAKE? (Score:3)
Apply your cycles to real science. (Score:3)
May I suggested the new Optimal Golomb Ruler [distributed.net] project over at Distributed.net. Searching this space can only be done exhastively, and is actually useful (in, admittedly, rarified areas). The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search [mersenne.org] is another project where the work will actually have lasting use.
Not to take away from Seti@home -- interesting project. It just became TOO popular. Ditto RC5 -- the project probably helped force the restrictions to be lifted, but it's point has been made; why spend another two years or so on it?
Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:3)
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
Re:Can you say "Hoax"? (Score:3)
Dear Customer,
thank you for your order of SETI accelerator.
Due to the overwhelming response, we regret we can not process your order at the moment. The placed orders exceed our stock by far and further production will take about 10 weeks.
We are very sorry, but we had to cancel your order, as we can not be sure you would like to buy our product under these conditions.
If you still would like to order SETI Accelerator please place your order again and we will be glad to deliver your order as soon as possible.
We do apologize for any inconvenience.
kind regards
Andrej Schachnazarow
KrasnoConv Solutions
Looks to me like they're just cancelling all the orders and letting those people who really want to throw their money away a second chance
Doesn't this defeat the purpose? (Score:3)
I think it would be more interesting if this card was dedicated to decrypt {-- CENSORED -- } {-- CENSORED -- }{-- CENSORED -- }
Is it approved by SETI@Home? (Score:3)
The reason that I mention this is because the SETI@Home people have already pointed out that several folks have modified their clients to get more speed. Because of this the SETI people couldn't guarantee that the results would be correct so they didn't accept data from those clients.
Is there a chance the same thing could happen here?
Samowar (Score:3)
Hello! This is Slashdot! April Fools 365 times a year!
Best regards,
January
Re:So who else thinks this is FAKE? (Score:3)
Regards,
January
This Is Refreshing.... (Score:3)
When do you ever hear a statement like this anymore? My opinion of the company was just improved immensely. Cross platform hardware support is too rare, and usually incredibly political.
Hmmm... Why not RC5? (Score:3)
What sort of CPU would be best for RC5? I know it is VERY heavy on integer math... so what (cheap) CPU is the best at integer math?
Thanks.
Re:Pointless (Score:3)
E.T. = NSA? (Score:3)
Re:E.T. = NSA? (Score:3)
Hmm.. (Score:3)
--------------------------------------
re: Hoax? Uh, guys... (Score:4)
At dns411.com:
domain: KRASNOCONV.COM
created: Jul 1 2000
So this domain name is about 23 days old...
last-changed: Jul 1 2000
registration-expiration: Jul 1 2001
registrant-title: Herr
registrant-firstname: Andrej
registrant-lastname: Schachnasarow
registrant-organization: KrasnoConv
registrant-street: Au 5
registrant-pcode: 94140
registrant-city: Ering
registrant-ccode: DE
Which is Germany, isn't it..?
registrant-phone: +49 8573 12345
Is there anything funny about the phone number, or... nah!
registrant-email: KrasnoConv@mail.ru
And the registrant is using a maildrop in Russia..
From the website's "Company Info" page:
"KrasnoConv solutions are a privately owned company, established 1995, located in Krasnokutovka, Ucraine."
There is no "Krasnokutovka" in the index of the National Geographic Atlas of the World, Revised Sixth Edition, 1996. The closest matches are "Krasnokamsk" and "Krasnoleninskiy"...
Food for thought...
I'll let you draw your own conclusions...
t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®
Re:Additional SETI Clients On Other Processors? (Score:4)
SHould be possible. I remember a ray-tracer written to run inside an Apple Laserwriter. At the time it was the fastest processor many people had.
Re:Any modern CPU can encode MP3 "on the fly". (Score:4)
Witness that Wall Street is on of the biggest consumers of supercomputing in the world. While that kind of power (and the algorithms to exploit it) are out of the reach of individuals, I know a guy who has done some stuff that can be cranked through in several hours on a consumer PC...
Indeed. (Score:4)
Re:Doesn't this defeat the purpose? (Score:4)
However, there are some of us who want to do more than throw scraps of processor time at the project. We want to cross the line and more actively contribute and do something a little extra because we believe in it and we want to push it even the smallest bit forward.
We may never live to see anything come of it. But just doing what we do may make it happen sooner, if it ever does.
That's good enough for me.
Crypto is a philosophy, to guarantee our rights (Score:4)
-- Article 12 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
It's not about passwording a BIOS to keep the kids off your computer while you're away at work. It's not about keeping skr1pt kiddiez out of your box--for that, use firewalls. It's about invasion of privacy. It's about freedom. It's about the private self. It's about the fact that there are people and organizations and governments which don't believe a man's private papers are private any more. It's about the right to have that privacy, and the absolute peace of mind that comes when you've got it.
See, there used to be this idea in democracies that a man had a fundamental human right to think whatever he wants and write whatever he wants, and that as long as it was kept private such information was personal and couldn't even be used against him in Court. A man's diaries and journals and such weren't even admissable as evidence at trial--it was tainted, because he had a right to think and write privately for his own contemplation. But that went away late in the last century/early in this century, in almost all countries. Your diaries, your private thoughts and reflections, were no longer private, could be used against you and now even subpoenaed.
Some people don't consider this a huge loss. Others consider it a huge loss, of something fundamental. Do you know why there's no explicit "right to privacy" in the U.S. Bill of Rights? Because none of the founding fathers ever thought that it could be taken away, it was such a fundamental aspect of the Common Law. Freedom of the press, the right to assemble, the right to bear arms--all the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights had been taken away by the British at one point or another, but never did they go so low as to use a colonist's own private diaries and thoughts against him at trial. It was so incredibly fundamental. The Fourth Amendment only begins to touch upon this, but unfortunately didn't fully flesh out a "right to privacy" and is tody construed by the Court to mean that as long as the cops have a warrant they can take any damned thing they want to even if it's something the Founding Fathers would have found inviolable, like one's own journals.
Fast forward two centuries, and this fundamental right has disappeared. If you are accused of anything, or even if you're just a material witness, your journals and papers can be subpoenaed and paraded out before the world. Records of Monica Lewinsky's book purchases, and her private correspondence, taken and abused and paraded before the public. People's hard drives have been either confiscated or imaged by the authorities for things as petty as possibly having conspired to call in sick during an airline sick-out. Would you want your hard drive imaged and inspected because you called in sick? Or would you want it imaged or confiscated for having said something negative about a company in an online forum, so that now you're being sued for libel for making an honest and true comment about some behemoth corporation? It's happened and is happening. You don't have to be a terrorist or a child pornographer or a seditionist any more to have the contents of your hard drive made public any more. these days you can be anyone. Are you aware of the fact that people who've worked for Consumer Reports have had their computers searched because a big powerful company filed a libel suit against them, hmmm? My computer is my own goddamned business, and what I write or store here is private. PERIOD. It's a fundamental human right to privacy which I, and you, and every humanfuckingbeing has, so call me a "fool" all you like, but you're the fucking fool for not wanting every bit of privacy and humanity which governments and corporations are taking away. You find no use for encrypted systems? Fine. But some of us are actually interested in preserving our rights and we aren't fools for that. The one thing we do have left, at least in the U.S., is a Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate ourselves, so with an encrypted system we could just say, when the key is demanded, "On advice of counsel I decline to answer, on the grounds that such an answer may incriminate me." The only way they could possibly get around that is by granting you full immunity from all charges relating to whatever may be on your system, so crypto is an effective way to protect yourself if you should ever say something a corporation or the government doesn't like. There are many programs to encrypt your hard drives, but you can't effectively encrypt your boot drive, and you can't encrypt swap without major overhead (another reason a yhardware card would be great); there are ways in which software encryption mechanisms can fuck up and reveal your key or compromising info about your key, and your boot drive may also provide fodder for social engineering or provide plaintext which you haven't yet encrypted; so, a hardware card which provides a completely encrypted system with little overhead would be the ideal. These days, we unfortunately can use the term "American dissidents" almost as truthfully as we could say "Chinese dissidents".
That isn't even taking into consideration the needs of individuals in other countries. So stop calling people who want privacy fools, and start appreciating the rights which we should all hold dear. A few more quotes to bolster the point:
"The real aim of current policy is to ensure the continued effectiveness of US information warfare assets against individuals, businesses and governments in Europe and elsewhere"
-- Ross Anderson
"As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy."
-- Christopher Dawson, The Judgment of Nations, 1942
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."
-- The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."
-- Judge Gideon J. Tucker, 1866
"The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure."
-- Albert Einstein
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence."
--Charles Austin Beard, 1874 - 1948
This is a Geek Toy, Not ffor the Average Bear... (Score:4)
"Hey Bob, did you hear about that Seti project where people use their computers to help search for extraterrestrial radio signals?"
"Yup. Pretty cool, eh?"
"Yeah, I decided to go ahead and install it on my workstation. Seems like a great project for a geek to help out."
"Yeah, I installed a special multiprocessor vector processing unit in my computer to work on Seti all the time; it runs on a PCI card, and beats the hell out of a P!!! 500 even though it doesn't use any of my CPU's cycles to do the work, it's all in hardware. Took these military surplus vector processors and..."
Now, that's some nice geek bragging rights, my friend. Talk about exotic hardware. I just wish they'd do something like this for distributed.net, since there have to be a few embedded chips which would handle crypto-cracking pretty well.
That brings me to my #1 desire in an exotic PCI card: hardware-based encryption. I want a card with an embedded processor(s) to handle a very strong combination of crypto specifically designed for encrypting hard drives. Wouldn't it be amazing to have a PCI card which registers to your BIOS as the primary hard disk controller, and then prompts for password information before bringing up a boot menu allowing access to your real hard drives and operating system(s)? Imagine, with a dedicated card like that the entire system could be encrypted with almost no overhead, since the card would handle all decryption/encryption and leave the main CPU(s) free. The only slow down on such a system would be the slight delay in routing I/O calls through the card, but I'm sure it's technically feasible to do such a thing. IBM does something similar in the hardware of some of its big-$$$ RISC systems. Now, a card like *that* would be sweet, and if implemented right with good drivers virtually fool-proof.
Additional SETI Clients On Other Processors? (Score:4)
Is there any way to use additional processors or co-processors on a PC (x86) to run SETI @ Home clients?
For example, I have a Voodoo 2 (12 Megs of RAM) in my Linux box. Would there be some way to write a SETI client that uses the Voodoo's processors to run additional SETI clients/threads? This situation is pefect because unless I'm using a 3D program (Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, etc) the Voodoo is doing nothing.
The only reason I ask this question is because computers do math, it's a fact, just math all of the time. Why not have the SETI client use some of the great FPU (Floating Point Unit) on the graphics processors of a Voodoo card? Have the Voodoo do it's math on the Voodoo's processors rather than the PC's CPU.
Also, I don't see why this won't work for other things besides Voodoo cards. Any card that's strictly 3D, some NICs have a small co-processor for checksumming, or even a way to set the prioroity on the SETI client using a 2D/3D card (so 2D performance doesn't suffer when the user is using normal windowed applications).
Reasons why this is a hoax (Score:4)
2 - The Technical Specs say that there is 32Mb of onboard memory PER PROCESSOR. This means, on the 6 processor board there's 192Mb RAM! Judging by the pictures on the site, there is NO WAY you'd fit that much RAM on a card that size.
3 - Those pictures. I'm a dab hand at Photoshop, and whoever made those pictures isn't.
4 - The "upgradeable" board - according to the site you can buy a 6 processor board, and add on as many processors as you like, yourself. A stark contrast from the pictures, which clearly show that these chips are surface mounted, and not slottable.
5 - The "Beta Test" bit. According to their beta-test page, they'll give you one of these boards for FREE, if you offer to beta test for them. This doesn't sound like a kosher company to me! Imagine if nVidia said, "hey, here's our new Super-Whammo-HForce GTS 2000 Pro, it retails for $800, but we'd like you to 'beta-test' it for free!".
If this does turn out to be a geniune product, then the boys at Krasnoconv need to find a decent marketing agency - at the moment they're looking like just one step above totl.net's Spudserver!
--
jambo
system.admin.without.a.clue
Is this for real? (Score:4)
A quick search of "Samowar" or "PR-964" didn't turn up much on Google, nor on the Federation of American Scientists [fas.org], one of the most respected military analysis sites on the Internet. Where would they get the documentation for a military surplus processor? Why not the scads of other cheap embedded, well known, processors out there like ARM, i960? I know the Eastern European nations are hard for cash and selling say MiG's and Flankers but this is an odd way to make money :)
Anyways, why would anyone want such a thing? I love seti@home (running at work, our research lab, total about 22 machines) as much as anyone else, but I wouldn't buy specialized hardware for the thing...
--Calum
This is such a hoax (Score:5)
Bleh.
Does this affect results? (Score:5)
For example, if there's a rounding error in one of the floating point libraries for whatever OS you're compiling for, let's just take the common example of a 6 processor embedded PCI card, wouldn't that invalidate the results from that computer as much as the Seti@Home source being modified?
Hotnutz.com [hotnutz.com] - Funny
This will really help... (Score:5)
Sometimes I wish there were a distributed computing project out there that I actually cared about. Maybe we should start a project to scan the space of all 2MB Linux ELF executables until we find one that corresponds to a fast, stable, standards-compliant web browser. The funny thing is, that might actually take less time than Mozilla [mozilla.org]...
Can you say "Hoax"? (Score:5)