CompuServe Thread

We are conducting a survey of possible interests in solid state node machines. From the threads I see there are several network rendering farms of various sizes, some of which are quite large, and I assume taking up alot of space. We build "diskless nodes" utilizing single board engines and FLASH technology. The nodes of course, do not have to be diskless, a hard drive can be installed, with or without the solid state disk drive. These machines "boot" themselves when power is applied as the "boot tracks" are stored in FLASH memory. Drive A: is FLASH and Drive: B: is R/W SRAM. The FLASH is programmable hence making changes to the firmware does not require burning new EPROMS. The R/W SRAM is battery backed so that it retains data after power down. Our diskless node can be ran with or without keyboard or monitor. The single board engine can be anything from 8088, 286, 386, 486DX33 to 486DX2 66. The size of the diskless drives vary in perspective to cost. from 256K to 14 meg of solid state storage. Two 14 meg solid state drives of course will yeild 28 meg. The amount of memory that the single board engines are capable of storing is variable, depending on needs, applications, and budgets. 32meg system ram is the average single board 486. The nodes can have hard drives and or a floppy if desired. These units can be built strictly custom for your application, from test equipment, multiple comm ports, audio processing, to data aquisition, motion control to NETWORK RENDERING NODES for 3DS3. Two style of cases are currently available, rackmount and a small tower. The tower has an extremely small footprint of 4 1/2" x 14" with a height of 9". Of course, the network card of your choice can be installed in the four slotted backplane. We can do any hardware/firmware custom work. If you wanted 19 motherboards with network cards and solid state boot drives with a hard drive array built into one case or rack, this too can be accomodated., There is practically no limit, with the exception of budgets and time. We are looking for some response as to get an idea of possibly building a line of general nodes geared for 3DS. If there is great interests, then we will conduct a more detailed survey of hardware etc. needed, so that we can design a node system that would meet most everyones requirements at minimal costs, and that would have adaptability to different environments and systems as well. Oh yes, rack mount SVGA monitors and NTSC monitor (9") are available as well. Also, Portable Suitcase Style workstations can be built for custom applications. We can work closely with you to build you the system(s) you need. All work is warranted. We do not have many stock items at this time and will not be restocking unless we have good positive responses. Costs Vary GREATLY depending on harware used and applications of, so we do not have a catalog. The appropriate method would be a voice call where I can write down all of your specs and then I would get back with you in about 24 hours with an 80% accurate estimate. Once all has been reconfirmed, then a 100% accurate cost of hardware/software/firmware and services can be established and agreed upon. We have the talent and knowledge and have built like systems for five years as data logging devices and test equipment. Some of our devices are currently being used in Zoos for collecting and storing temperature data. We would like to put these skills to work if there is a market to support it. Do get back with any comments, suggestions, or ridicule, (ah, leave out the ridicule). One nice thing to know for instance, would be, "what is the most widely used network hardware/software for 3DS?". As a final note, we also program EPROMS and PAL chips. Need a custom logic chip for an application? We have used PALs in the past for address decoding of a custom made solid state drive, which saved us from using an extra seven chips. We might add that we can put any programming into any type of storage device. Have a program you want burned into EPROM or stored in FLASH? Another use for diskless nodes would be to build an array of controllers for various video/audio equipment. Slotted backplanes of any amount of slots can be made to accomadate any amount of I/O cards. For comment or more info contact: Merlin G. Farmer Crystal Cave Animagix Crystal Cave Computers, Inc. PHONE: (voice) (618) 985-8154 CTS 7:00 am to 10:00 p.m seven days a week. OR leave EMAIL. Thank You for your time. Merlin