Re: The ultimate TOE design

On Fri, 17 September 2004 08:37:17 +1000, Lincoln Dale wrote:

sure -- ok -- that gets you the main processor.
now add to that a Northbridge (perhaps AMD doesnt need that but i'm sure it 
still does), Southbridge, DDR-SDRAM, ancilliary chips for doing MAC, PHY, 
...

couple that with the voltage of PCI where you're likely to need 
step-up/step-down circuits (which aren't 100% efficient themselves), you're 
still going to get very close to the limit, if not over it.

... and after all that, the Geode is really designed to be an embedded 
processor.
Jeff was implying using garden-variety processors which seem to have large 
heatsinks, not to mention cooling fans, not to mention quite significant 
heat generation.

we're not _quite_ at the stage of being able to take garden-variety 
processors and build-your-own-blade-server using PCI _just_ yet. :-)

FWIW, I've already been working with complete systems that suck their
power from PCI.  They do exist, just not in the grocery store next
door.

Jörn

-- 
Das Aufregende am Schreiben ist es, eine Ordnung zu schaffen, wo
vorher keine existiert hat.
-- Doris Lessing