Extreme Linux Server Available to North America

jcasman writes "CNet is covering an announcement from Japanese Linux provider Plat'Home on a low-cost, super tough Linux-based server, now available in the US, that can handle extreme heat and cold. 'The OpenMicroServer is kind of an "extreme" use server pushing the boundaries for normal, low-cost hardware. In a 624-day endurance test, the OpenMicroServer performed normally under 122 degree F conditions. The unit also employs a power efficient AMD Alchemy (MIPS) CPU and precise part placement based on thermo-fluid analysis to achieve semi-hermetic construction.'"

That would be

[cephah]

50 degrees Celsius for the rest of the world.

Extreme?

[clarkn0va]

0-50C is hardly extreme. (Use the AC adapter and it's 0-40C--same as just about any of the commodity electronic components in my home).

Sorry if I'm not overly impressed.

db

Re:Extreme?

[Flavio]

Exactly. I design instrumentation for the power industry. We're talking about equipment which has to run at up to 70 C during the day, every day, with a target lifespan of at least a decade. That can get tricky, specially in humid environments (think of power substations installed deep in the jungle), but it can be done and has been done for the last 50 years.

0-50 C gets close to consumer grade. As long as you choose power efficient designs, use a decent safety factor for the power supply and buy good parts (meaning no cheap electrolytic capacitors built with stolen formulas), there won't be any problems.

Re:On that note

[Anonymous Coward]

latin: statim

Re:How about some details?

[harrkev]

For the link-challenged:
http://www.plathome.com/products/microserver/oms/oms_spec.html [plathome.com]

Re:On that note

[vux984]

What is the difference between celsius and centigrade?

In practical terms nothing.

In technical terms 'centigrade' scale is defined as having zero at the melting point of ice, and 100 at the boiling point of water at standard atomopheric pressure. While celsius is defined as the kelvin temperature - 273.15.

The reason for the difference was that the melting point of water is hard to measure precisely, due to the mechanics of melting creating an insulating layer of meltwater around the ice, that you can't simply stir to remove because that would introduce heat...which obviously is counter productive.

So they redefined it in terms of Kelvin which could be measured more precisely, and renamed it to make it unambiguous which definition was being used.

And where does "stat" come from when used in medical dramas?

stat is from the latin 'statim', which just means 'immediately' or 'at once'.

Thermo-fluid semi-hermetic what??????

[viking80]

You do not know what "precise part placement based on thermo-fluid analysis to achieve semi-hermetic construction" means?
Well, lets break it up:
a) "precise part placement"
b) "thermo-fluid analysis"
c) "semi-hermetic construction"
It means that
A) the CPU is placed close to the case, so B)the case functions as a heat sink. Therefore, no fan is needed and the box is C) dustproof.

This happens to be a fairly common design.

Re:Now the NEW most important question...

[snowraver1]

No.

That's not ruggedized

[Animats]

I just came back from the Embedded Systems Conference, where you see systems running on shake tables, or submerged in aquaria. With fish. -18C to 50C is not an industrial temperature range. Normally, the "commercial range" is 0C to 70C, and "industrial range" is -40C to +85C. It's all solid state memory, so there's not much of a temperature problem at the low end, as long as the humidity is low enough to avoid condensation or ice. "Thermo-fluid analysis to achieve semi-hermetic construction." - right.

Also, the thing has a MIPS processor, and it's a bit late for that. It's not even AMD product any more; the Alchemy line was sold off to Raza [razamicroelectronics.com] years ago.

Re:On that note

[atraintocry]

Regarding Celsius/centigrade, while the name change happened a few years after the change in definition, I don't think you can consider them to be separate scales. Some people still say "centigrade" and when they do so you have to assume that they're just using the wrong name, rather than start converting.

Plus, Kelvin is itself based on the triple-point of water so we can't say that Celsius is based on water and centigrade isn't. They're really just synonyms.

Re:On that note

[danbert8]

Acutally, you can survive a limited amount of time exposed to space. See 2001: A Space Odyssey. Arthur C Clarke knew what he was talking about.
 
Yes, space is very very cold. But vacuums are very good insulators, so there isn't much to take the heat away from you other than radiation, which is a very slow process to lose heat by. Your blood will boil from the low pressure before you'd freeze or suffocate.

The best server they dont want to sell.

[Anonymous Coward]

We are looking for corporate customers who wish to use the MicroServer series for their appliances. See our overview of MicroServer applications.

We do not sell the MicroServer series directly to consumers.

Nice, advertise a product that a lot of people can't have, and not even note a reseller in the US. That's not really the best way if you're going to advertise to the public at large.

Re:On that note

[TheThiefMaster]

You need two points (or one point and the size of one step) to define a scale.

In kelvin's case it is:
0 K is at absolute 0
273.16 K is at the triple point [wikipedia.org] of water

Celius is defined with the same two points, as -273.15 C and 0.01 C. This definition makes the freezing point of water approx. 0 C and the boiling point approx. 99.9839 C [wikipedia.org]

Some of the above may have been shamelessly ripped from Wikipedia. "Degrees" character removed because Slashdot mangles it into "Â".