Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:36:00 -0700 | From | Deepak Saxena <> | Subject | Re: The ultimate TOE design |
| |
On Sep 15 2004, at 21:04, Paul Jakma was caught saying: > On Wed, 15 Sep 2004, Jeff Garzik wrote: > > >Put simply, the "ultimate TOE card" would be a card with network ports, a > >generic CPU (arm, mips, whatever.), some RAM, and some flash. This card's > >"firmware" is the Linux kernel, configured to run as a _totally indepenent > >network node_, with IP address(es) all its own. > > > >Then, your host system OS will communicate with the Linux kernel running > >on the card across the PCI bus, using IP packets (64K fixed MTU). > > >My dream is that some vendor will come along and implement such a > >design, and sell it in enough volume that it's US$100 or less. > >There are a few cards on the market already where implementing this > >design _may_ be possible, but they are all fairly expensive. > > The intel IXP's are like the above, XScale+extra-bits host-on-a-PCI > card running Linux. Or is that what you were referring to with > "<cards exist> but they are all fairly expensive."?
Unfortunately all the SW that lets one make use of the interesting features of the IXPs (microEngines, crypto, etc) is a pile of propietary code.
~Deepak
-- Deepak Saxena - dsaxena at plexity dot net - http://www.plexity.net/
"Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages." - Number 6 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |