Ant-Computing - Revision history

Willy: /* Hardware */

2015-01-19T22:18:40Z

‎Hardware

Willy: /* Applications */

2015-01-19T21:59:53Z

‎Applications

Willy: /* Hardware */

2015-01-19T21:56:07Z

‎Hardware

Willy: /* Hardware */

2015-01-19T21:33:16Z

‎Hardware

Willy: /* Software */

2015-01-19T21:24:22Z

‎Software

Willy: /* Hardware */

2015-01-19T21:24:08Z

‎Hardware

Ben: /* Getting started */

2015-01-19T21:22:00Z

‎Getting started

Willy: /* Software */

2015-01-19T21:21:14Z

‎Software

Willy: /* Software */

2015-01-19T21:20:54Z

‎Software

Willy: /* Software */

2015-01-19T21:12:24Z

‎Software

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 [[Image:formicusv1.jpg|thumb|alt=Formicus server version 1.|Formicus version 1 web server - Celeron, 128MB RAM, 48MB flash]]
 * '''Formicus v1''' : it was the first attempt at doing something a bit more professional and usable. It used a celeron 400 MHz (with a fan), had a smaller LCD, a keypad and a smartcard reader. Its more important heating made it harder to build and in part due to lack of funding it never went further than a prototype that raised many important questions for possible future designs.
-* '''various platforms''' that have been evaluated for Formilux : Here you'll find test results of various machines for various usages. Some of them have been used or are still being used.
+* [[Compatible Platforms|'''various platforms''']] that have been evaluated for Formilux : Here you'll find test results of various machines for various usages. Some of them have been used or are still being used.
 * '''power supplies''' : since Formicus v1, the selection of a power supply has remained one of the most difficult task. Small power supplies tend to heat more than larger ones and are more fragile. Large models often have fans. Open-frame models heat less but are dangerous to place close to low voltages. It is also often difficult to have the expected voltages on the output, especially when inputs voltages are close to output (eg: DC-to-DC conversion). Such issues are discussed there.
 * '''enclosures''' : this has always been one of the most difficult steps in the Formicus projects. Version 1 was open on its sides, which made it dangerous. Version 2 was a real half-width 1U box, but made it difficult to drill/cut and to place parts. Newer devices are much smaller and do not always come with a handy enclosure. The best example often is NAS motherboards which are very small but which come with a very large enclosure supposed to carry hard drives.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:59, 19 January 2015
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	* '''Hexapod''' : this is a vision-equiped walking hexapod robot. The small specs of acceptable boards make them suitable to run Formilux, and particularly the fact that power cuts at any instant when batteries fall below a threshold, so writes must be very limited to non-existent to protect the hardware's flash memory. Several boards have been tried, with various DC-DC power converters. Running a very limited amount of services is also critical to keep latency low.		* '''Hexapod''' : this is a vision-equiped walking hexapod robot. The small specs of acceptable boards make them suitable to run Formilux, and particularly the fact that power cuts at any instant when batteries fall below a threshold, so writes must be very limited to non-existent to protect the hardware's flash memory. Several boards have been tried, with various DC-DC power converters. Running a very limited amount of services is also critical to keep latency low.
	* [[Choosing a processor for a build farm\|'''build farm''']] : this is the project of assembling a build farm that could be used to build kernels or Formilux images. Various hardware have been benchmarked. Many sub-$100 devices have been evaluated for their ability to rival more expensive Atoms and Core-i3 at this task. Multi-core with high memory bandwidth are needed, low-latency network as well. Some concepts are still being experimented with (eg: daisy-chain build nodes instead of connecting them to a switch).		* [[Choosing a processor for a build farm\|'''build farm''']] : this is the project of assembling a build farm that could be used to build kernels or Formilux images. Various hardware have been benchmarked. Many sub-$100 devices have been evaluated for their ability to rival more expensive Atoms and Core-i3 at this task. Multi-core with high memory bandwidth are needed, low-latency network as well. Some concepts are still being experimented with (eg: daisy-chain build nodes instead of connecting them to a switch).
		+	* '''Backup servers''' : when you run multiple servers at home or in a small office, you want to back up their data and you want something easy so that you don't have to worry about that painful task. Formilux is small and easy to deploy into various unexpected devices making it easy to turn them into convenient backup servers provided that they have at least a LAN and a USB port.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 [[Image:formicusv0.jpg|thumb|alt=Formicus server version 0.|Formicus version 0 web server - 486DX4, 16MB RAM, 16MB flash]]
 An initial goal that was seeked was to be able to put two rackable 1U servers side by side in a normal 19" rack. The purpose was to easily double server density in datacenter racks. That goal was seeked with both Formicus v1 and Formicus v2 servers.
-* '''Formicus v0''' : it was a fanless and diskless 486 DX4-120 MHz with 16 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash, running a stripped down Slackware Linux 7.0 distro. It used to host the ant-computing website for several months. Its nice looking and large LCD attracted a lot of people who asked us questions about how to make one, and it was even featured on Slashdot.
+* '''Formicus v0''' : it was an experimental fanless and diskless 486 DX4-120 MHz with 16 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash, running a stripped down Slackware Linux 7.0 distro. It used to host the ant-computing website for several months. Its nice looking and large LCD attracted a lot of people who asked us questions about how to make one, and it was even featured on Slashdot.
 [[Image:formicusv1.jpg|thumb|alt=Formicus server version 1.|Formicus version 1 web server - Celeron, 128MB RAM, 48MB flash]]
 * '''Formicus v1''' : it was the first attempt at doing something a bit more professional and usable. It used a celeron 400 MHz (with a fan), had a smaller LCD, a keypad and a smartcard reader. Its more important heating made it harder to build and in part due to lack of funding it never went further than a prototype that raised many important questions for possible future designs.

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 * '''Formicus v0''' : it was a fanless and diskless 486 DX4-120 MHz with 16 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash, running a stripped down Slackware Linux 7.0 distro. It used to host the ant-computing website for several months. Its nice looking and large LCD attracted a lot of people who asked us questions about how to make one, and it was even featured on Slashdot.
 [[Image:formicusv1.jpg|thumb|alt=Formicus server version 1.|Formicus version 1 web server - Celeron, 128MB RAM, 48MB flash]]
-* '''Formicus v1''' : it was the first attempt at doing something a bit more professional and usable. It used a celeron 400 MHz (with a fan), had a smaller LCD, a keypad and a smartcard reader. Its more important heating made it harder to build and it never went further than a prototype that raised many important questions for future designs.
+* '''Formicus v1''' : it was the first attempt at doing something a bit more professional and usable. It used a celeron 400 MHz (with a fan), had a smaller LCD, a keypad and a smartcard reader. Its more important heating made it harder to build and in part due to lack of funding it never went further than a prototype that raised many important questions for possible future designs.
 * '''various platforms''' that have been evaluated for Formilux : Here you'll find test results of various machines for various usages. Some of them have been used or are still being used.
 * '''power supplies''' : since Formicus v1, the selection of a power supply has remained one of the most difficult task. Small power supplies tend to heat more than larger ones and are more fragile. Large models often have fans. Open-frame models heat less but are dangerous to place close to low voltages. It is also often difficult to have the expected voltages on the output, especially when inputs voltages are close to output (eg: DC-to-DC conversion). Such issues are discussed there.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:24, 19 January 2015
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	<div id="Hardware"></div>		<div id="Hardware"></div>
−	~~[[Image:formicusv0.jpg\|thumb\|alt=Formicus server version 0.\|Formicus version 0 web server - 486DX4, 16MB RAM, 16MB flash]]~~

	=== Hardware ===		=== Hardware ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:22, 19 January 2015
Line 48:		Line 48:
	* '''Hexapod''' : this is a vision-equiped walking hexapod robot. The small specs of acceptable boards make them suitable to run Formilux, and particularly the fact that power cuts at any instant when batteries fall below a threshold, so writes must be very limited to non-existent to protect the hardware's flash memory. Several boards have been tried, with various DC-DC power converters. Running a very limited amount of services is also critical to keep latency low.		* '''Hexapod''' : this is a vision-equiped walking hexapod robot. The small specs of acceptable boards make them suitable to run Formilux, and particularly the fact that power cuts at any instant when batteries fall below a threshold, so writes must be very limited to non-existent to protect the hardware's flash memory. Several boards have been tried, with various DC-DC power converters. Running a very limited amount of services is also critical to keep latency low.
	* [[Choosing a processor for a build farm\|'''build farm''']] : this is the project of assembling a build farm that could be used to build kernels or Formilux images. Various hardware have been benchmarked. Many sub-$100 devices have been evaluated for their ability to rival more expensive Atoms and Core-i3 at this task. Multi-core with high memory bandwidth are needed, low-latency network as well. Some concepts are still being experimented with (eg: daisy-chain build nodes instead of connecting them to a switch).		* [[Choosing a processor for a build farm\|'''build farm''']] : this is the project of assembling a build farm that could be used to build kernels or Formilux images. Various hardware have been benchmarked. Many sub-$100 devices have been evaluated for their ability to rival more expensive Atoms and Core-i3 at this task. Multi-core with high memory bandwidth are needed, low-latency network as well. Some concepts are still being experimented with (eg: daisy-chain build nodes instead of connecting them to a switch).
−
−	~~== Getting started ==~~
−
−	* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]
−	* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
−	* [http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce MediaWiki release mailing list]
−	* [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents MediaWiki's User's Guide]

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 <div id="Hardware"></div>
-[[Image:formicusv0.jpg|thumb|alt=Formicus server version 0.|Formicus version 0 web server - 486DX4, 8MB RAM, 16MB flash]]
+[[Image:formicusv0.jpg|thumb|alt=Formicus server version 0.|Formicus version 0 web server - 486DX4, 16MB RAM, 16MB flash]]
 === Hardware ===