[desktop-discuss] Offering x64 based (host && guest) SunPCI board for Solaris x86/x64 as (affordable) product ever explored? _/_ WAS: OS's in VM

[Garrett D'Amore]

On Wed, 2007-08-29 at 20:16 -0500, Shawn Walker wrote:
> On 29/08/2007, Martin Bochnig <mb1x at gmx.com> wrote:
> > Martin Bochnig wrote:
> > > If you would still be using a SPARC as primary platform (i.e. sb2k),
> > > then you all could easily benefit from SunPCiIIIpro, which offers you a
> > > usable solution (speed).
> > > You can even boot MartUX_x86 inside it (with a special grub floppy that
> > > I never uploaded so far / then netboot SPARC's local dvd-rom [special
> > > SunPCi-miniroot on MartUX DVD]).
> > >
> > >
> > http://www.sun.com/desktop/products/sunpcipro/
> > (appears to be almost EOL'ed now, probably due to having been overpriced
> > at $800)
> >
> > Has such a thing ever been considered for x86 hosts?
> > Just opening up the old sparc drivers/application would be an excellent
> > start ...
> > I'm sure Sun didn't have to pay a dime for someone porting the
> > traditional SUNWspci3 to x86.
> > Afterwards Sun could bring out an Opteron based card (or rather Turion64
> > Mobile or similar) at, say, $399.
> > I'm sure there is a demand by desktop customers, to some extent.
> > You could also offer such a thing for host OS's other than Solaris.
> >
> > Or is low level virtualisation (e.g. Xen) the exclusive road to go
> > nowadays, especially in terms of server-sales?
> > Maybe it is a few years too late now.
> 
> I'd love to see the reverse product. SPARC-on-a-card for my x86 ;)
> 


Both devices have a substantial hurdle to overcome, which is the 25W
power budget for PCI.  For PCIe the budget is higher, but IIRC its only
on the order of 75W.

You might have to some kind of creative power management to make it
work.

	-- Garrett