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> Way back at CES 2014, Razer’s CEO introduced a revolutionary concept design for a PC that had one main backplane and users could insert a CPU, GPU, power supp
by MisterTea 7y ago
> Way back at CES 2014, Razer’s CEO introduced a revolutionary concept design for a PC that had one main backplane and users could insert a CPU, GPU, power supply, storage, and anything else in a modular fashion. Fast forward to 2020, and Intel is aiming to make this idea a reality.
1994 called. It wants it PICMG 1.0 back.
edit: https://www.picmg.org/openstandards/pci-isa/ https://www.picmg.org/openstandards/pci-isa/
- SI_Rob 7y ago1987 has been on the line with AUTOCONFIG [0], but the call was disconnected in 1995 after being transferred a half dozen times to clueless sales departments [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoconfig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoconfig
- rbanffy 7y ago1974 called. The Altair wants its backplane back. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-100_bus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-100_bus
- MisterTea 7y agoOh how I missed that. And I actually have an 8800b.
- rbanffy 7y agoPassive backplanes are a convenient way to organize modular machines with multiple boards. I really don't get why someone would want this, however. We already have motherboard and chassis standards and upgrading them is trivial. And I retro-envy you. ;-)
- akiselev 7y agoNative Instruments PXI backplanes are made for scientific instruments so you throw on a couple of mobo modules with modern intel CPUs hooked up through the PCI backplane lanes to RF generators, motor controllers, sensors and diagnostic equipment like spectrometers, network analyzers, etc. The backplane comes with more specialized power sources and a bunch of other stuff too. If you need, for example, a network analyzer hooked up to an SDR that can live decode and compare tens of gigabits of sensor data to the output for validation and tuning you might need several CPUs ingesting and processing that data talking to another CPU that actually runs the SDR software and so on. For these kinds of scenarios, a few PCIe cards and a rack really isn't enough (or cheaply available) compared to a PXI backplane.
- MisterTea 7y agoBelieve it or not it was a dumpster save from work. I was tasked to clean out the "attic" which built up decades of computing and industrial control hardware. In addition to the 8800b I took home a complete IBM system 23 and Franklin Ace 1200.
- Razengan 7y agoThat name triggered memories of AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS
- SI_Rob 7y agoI never noticed this, heh. Indeed If those two files were made into a protocol that is automatic, user-transparent, and active at the BIOS layer then it's a pretty good portmanteau on both semantic and conceptual levels. Amiga systems did not have any meaningful user-facing configuration settings at the hardware level; bus-level peripherals following the Zorro II/III spec Just Worked (tm).
- rzzzt 7y agoAsk and you shall receive (a modern 8088 design that uses a backplane): http://www.smbaker.com/building-an-xi-8088-pc http://www.smbaker.com/building-an-xi-8088-pc
- colejohnson66 7y agoThat reminds me of the RC2014[0], a Z80 based system that uses a backplane. [0]: https://rc2014.co.uk/ https://rc2014.co.uk/
- Aloha 7y agoI'd be real interested in a 16-bit version of this board (PC-AT Compatible). I'd also be real interested in an assembled one.