Hello Everyone,

I'm doing research in order to build a MOSIX network that will search for Mersenne prime numbers. I've been searching for servers and haven't really found the ones I'd like to buy.

Is there such a thing as a server that has *only* a CPU (x86 if possible), RAM (up to 2GB), and Ethernet Jack? They should be diskless and boot via NFS. These servers shouldn't have audio, video, or other I/O connectors.

I guess I really want is a Plug Computer that has a real CPU and decent amount of RAM in it.

Does anything like I describe exist?

Thank You!
Drew

You probably need dhcpd and tftpd to make sure that the diskless server can boot from the network. You also need an NFS server where you store the system.
Your diskless server should have a network adapter that supports booting from.

However this is most of the time done with blades or something like that, but they usually are connected to a SAN.

You've just described a blade server basically

You'll have lots of "bldes" which are computional nodes, which slot into a system which controls them all....

Not cheap though, for some examples here is the dell stuff:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/busi...ukbsdt1&~ck=mn

Blue_Ice and djsmiley2k,

I'm almost satisfied that a device like I described just does not exist.
I looked over the Dell Blade page and it's way out of my price range.

This is the best I've found:

Cappuccino PC Digital Engine (has audio, video, and USB)
CompuLab fit-PC2i (uses a weak Atom Z530 CPU)

Interesting Reading:

ServerFault: Low cost Linux box
Low Power/$ Servers

The only thing I can think of, in the price ranges you are talking, is what google does with hundreds of "normal" PC's and just ignore the extra interfaces you dont want/need. If they can't see the cost benefit of removing those extra I/O then I doubt anyone is going to sell them in the price range you need.

From what I've found normal computers are the only option.