Posted on 04/19/2016 11:31:20 AM PDT by markomalley
Fixstars' Olive is like the Raspberry Pi of servers, but with a twist -- it packs 13TB of solid-state drive storage in a system that can be held in one hand.
Olive could be viewed as a full-fledged computer crammed into a 2.5-inch SSD drive. The 13TB drive makes it one-of-a-kind in a market where compact computers are hungry for storage.
Some unique features make the server better suited for businesses than homes. It is customizable, with an FPGA (field-programmable gate array), which can be reprogrammed for specific tasks. It can also be used as a portable server to dish out movies, or to collect, store and distribute data related to databases or the Internet of Things.
The server gets its horsepower from FPGAs, which can be extremely fast. But the FPGA also adds to the complexity of using the system, as programming tasks into the hardware requires a considerable amount of skill. FPGAs aren't general purpose processors, they run only the specific tasks they are programmed to handle at a given time.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Whew. I guess I can retire my slide rule now.
If you have to ask, you can’t afford it...
The 13TB SSD is $13,000. Don’t know what this “Olive” costs.
“No price yet”
Looking forward to the $99 “buy it now” offers. Please!
More porn than anyone can handle.
“But the FPGA also adds to the complexity of using the system, as programming tasks into the hardware requires a considerable amount of skill.”
Anyone that writes reliable, low level software could create a robust FPGA design using various HDLs so long as they “think hardware” and “think parallel” instead of remaining chained to CPU thinking :-).
I’ve been designing ASICS/FPGAs of varying complexity for nearly 20 years and it still amazes me how some people “just get it” almost immediately while others, despite being quite brilliant people, struggle. I’m not “brilliant” nor do I feel that I have “considerable skill” ... I just love what I do and I pay close attention to how my target device works! I do the same thing when I have to write “safe” software.
I wouldn't be so sure of that!
Looks like Agam Shah ought to go back to 'analogy school' for making that silly, strained-past-the-breaking-point claim.
Sure, he's trying to say that it's like a big computer squeezed into a small form factor, but that's hardly the attribute that makes a Raspberry Pi, well, a Raspberry Pi.
Certainly the $35 price tag is a big part of the Pi's success. So is the easy interfacing of the Pi's hardware to the outside world.
Show me a Fixstars Olive for close to $35 that's also readily hackable and maybe I will withdraw the complaint. I'm not gonna hold my breath, though...
Hey, I want one.
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