Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

Something I've been curious about, why the dearth of portable workstation class hardware? Try and find a portable laptop style computer that uses a 64 bit CPU, ECC memory, and SAS hard drives. They don't exist.

Sure there's the occasional model from General Dynamics and other defense contractors, but those are typically ruggedized hardware for military use, and they cost a small fortune.

But why is there nothing from Dell, IBM, or HP, that uses an Opteron or Xeon chip, ECC memory, and 2.5" SAS drives? I can build a desktop workstation with these specs for under ~$2k. Why is nothing at all out there in a portable form factor?

Battery life isn't going to be great of course, but currently there are monster gamer laptops with multiple high-end GPU's, 2 or 3 or 4 hard drives, large screens, etc. so it's not unheard of to build a consumer grade portable with high end hardware. As with these gamer laptops, they aren't meant for use on your lap, or in a coffee shop, they're more of a "luggable" than a true "laptop".

The current hardware out there today is positioned perfectly to build such a machine. Current server chips, at least from AMD, are available with TDP as low as 35 watts - on par with a consumer mobile chip, so that would work very nicely in a luggable workstation. Plus enterprise storage, 10k and 15k SAS drives have all moved to a 2.5" form factor, perfect for a mobile workstation.

http://www.eurocom.com

A canadian company, I know a sales rep that works there but nothing other than that. Server/ workstation in a box. Xeons, ECC, big video cards, etc. No SAS but 4 SSDs is more than you need, surely.

Thanks for the interesting link, I had not heard of them before.

Looks like their only model with server chips is the "Panther 5SE". A couple show stoppers for me:

1. It says it "supports" ECC, but it uses SO-DIMM laptop memory, of which I've never seen ECC sticks available. Even their own configurator doesn't offer ECC sticks. So the ECC "support" is a sham, since ECC memory isn't available in that form factor, from them or anyone else.

2. It only supports intel Xeon chips, with the most power efficient being a 95w TDP. AMD has server chips with 45W and even 35W TDP - much better suited to a portable machine, IMO.

3. The disk interfaces are all SATA, not SAS.

An interesting link none the less. Know of any others?

Did they ever exist? Sounds like you're talking about a server on wheels.

1. Lazy research on your part. Yes ECC SODIMMS exist, example: http://www.adata-group.com/index.php?ac ... 6&piid=174

2. *and* are a quarter of the performance per watt. Pointless to push for unless you are hoping it would make it cheaper.

3. Who needs SAS in a workstation when you have SATA3 + SSD performance, 4 of them no less. Raid 1+0 them and enjoy life.

Yeah, there were a few other companies but I think they went out of business because there isn't really a market for this. :p

1. Where does one buy these? All of the "Where to buy" links on their own web site do not list them for sale! These mythical ECC SO-DIMM's are very difficult to find. Do you have a link to an online store where they can actually be purchased?

2. No, opteron is not a quarter of the performance per watt. Current server chips like opteron or xeon are not the same as the consumer desktop chips, do a google search and read up on them.

3. You are confused about storage media vs. interface. I know it seems like a lot of acronyms, but these are two separate technology areas. SSD vs HDD is a separate discussion from SATA vs SAS interface.

I know there used to be several companies that offered portable workstation & server hardware, but I'm not familiar with who the players are today. Hence my inquiry. Because I am in the market for such a thing, if it can be had for a reasonable sum, say under $4k.

1. I don't know, places. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/HYNIX-HMT351S6BF ... 612wt_1165

2. Hah. Sure, well go with AMD opterons being on par with sandy bridge xeons and let that conversation slide (though if you do any sort of server purchasing, I suggest you update your figures).

3. No, I am not confused on acronyms. I am suggesting that SAS provides zero benefit over SATA3 on a system with only 4 drives, and if those drives are SSD based, you should see incredible performance anyways.

4. This whole numbered reply thing is getting old. At this point you should be hitting google for some practical self research.

What would you want with SAS in a laptop? Sure, SAS and SATA Differ, but both have queueing now and the latest SATA transfer rates mean you won't be bottlenecked there. Second of all, what good would ECC be in a laptop? I could go for parity, but ECC? Why would you want to have power hungry 15K rpm drives in a laptop when you can have SSD if access time matters?

Why do parity now? ECC does everything parity does and more, which is why you only find parity now in caches. DRAM is cheap enough you'd be silly to go parity instead of nothing or ECC.



Longer lifetime if you're writing a lot?

In a laptop? I seriously have my doubts that the advertised MTBF will be valid if the drive is not mounted in a shock free, climate controlled environment.

15K RPM drives are so sensitive to vibration and shock that they can't even stand being shouted at , let alone being tossed all over the place. They also don't have G sensors that will park heads in the event of imminent shock like almost all current 2.5" SATA disks do. If you do an insane amount of writing, you can put a RAID1 SSD setup in them and just replace the drives that fail before you lose data. You can get over 500G SSDs for prices comparable to the same storage in 15K RPM now and you'd still be faster with the SSD in latency, transfer rate and IOPS. Just keep replacement drives on stock and you shouldn't have a problem with availability of your system.

15K RPM disks run much hotter than slower disks. This means they require much more air flow, which you will also have to provide. Sure, they'll run at the higher temperature, but the constant temperature changes will make the bearings wear much quicker and the magnetic density and track width will vary a lot more than in a temperature controlled environment.

The laptop I'm typing this from has "Mobile Workstation" on it. It's now 5 years old and apart from replacing the keyboard 3 times due to worn keys, It's basically still the same as when I bought it. Yes, I've upgraded it from a single 160G drive and a DVD burner to a 160G+500G and I've gone from 2G ram to the max of 4G. Other than that, it's still the same and I will probably replace the 160G drive with an Intel 330 240G SSD in the coming months. It would be able to run Windows8 just fine if it would have the EFI stuff MicroSoft requires. It would be able to run the latest OSX version just fine if Apple would allow it as well. The current offering from the vendor that is the "direct replacement" will come with 16G ram, a 1920*1050 IPS panel, a quadro GFX card and a 3rd gen intel quad core I5. Mine is a 15.4", but you can get a 17" version as well. Mine will do two external monitors using HDMI and VGA, or on a docking station you can use dual link DVI to drive a 2560*1500 or so monitor in combination with the laptop screen. The successor will drive dual display port screens at that resolution plus the laptop's own panel.

There are at least two comparable offerings in specs from major other vendors, so there is a market and there is competition in it. These are high spec portable computers that are using dedicated hardware designed for portable use. Look at what a portable workstation will be used for, what environmental conditions it will encounter and then pick the hardware that is most suitable for that. If you start putting a desktop computer or a server into a smaller enclosure, you don't get the best portable computer, because the components in it aren't designed for that and the philosophy of their design doesn't fit with portability.

Why not just rent a hot young bimbo in a French maid outfit to carry a normal-sized computer around for you ?

Amen to that.

I guess packing any proper performance server-class CPU in a laptop sized enclosure would cause a headache for cooling. Yes, AMD has somewhat decent power requirements, but they *are* a magnitude slower than a Xeon so I don't see the appeal of that.

Why would I waste a hot young bimbo in a French maid outfit I'm renting on carrying a normal-sized computer around for me?

I see you're not married

Nope!