<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 12/11/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">Alistair Cunningham</b> <<a href="mailto:acunningham@integrics.com">acunningham@integrics.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I know it's been asked before, but this area moves rapidly.<br><br>Would anyone have recommendations for a small or embedded system<br>suitable for running Asterisk on? Ideally, we'd like two boxes:<br><br>- One using compact flash, and is fanless, with rapid booting.
<br><br>- One with a hard disk for voicemail, call recording, etc.<br><br>Preferably they would be capable of bridging 60 calls Zap-Zap or<br>Zap-SIP, but we're willing to consider less powerful systems. The<br>ability to take a single Digium card is desirable
</blockquote><div><br>
(returning this conversation to its original question)<br>
<br>
60 calls Zap-Zap? By which I take it you are planning on using a quad T1 card? With echo cancelation? Given the price of these cards it may not really pay to cheap out on the core hardware. <br>
<br>
>From an embedded bottom-end and fanless perspective there are two x86es
worth looking at. One is the Geode LX. The other is any of the range of
upcoming C7 processors from Via. Via has an odd perspective on
heat management - they seem to think that covering the board with an
enormous heat sink counts as a fanless processor. Underclocking the
part works better. Still, a liquid cooled athlon outperforms both of
these processors and they are darn cheap these days. The cooling
system, power supply, and case all cost more than the base part.<br>
<br>
I have periodically worked with the Xscale, mostly the ixp425 and 465.
It is a fast and cool running embedded chip, with support for PCI, but
it doesn't have the oomph (no FPU!) to do echo cancelation or packet
loss concealment. I have never tried to push these sort of processors
into a situation where they had to do serious transcoding and view them
as useful in a < 24 line ip-pbx situation only. One of these days
I'll wedge a quad T1 board with echo cancellation into an ixp425 and
see what happens, but it seems unlikely to be good.<br>
<br>
</div><br></div><br>-- <br>Mike Taht<br>PostCards From the Bleeding Edge<br><a href="http://the-edge.blogspot.com">http://the-edge.blogspot.com</a>