[Asterisk-Users] Dinosaur *

[Mike M]

On Monday 02 June 2003 18:47, Scott Lambert wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 02, 2003 at 04:46:51PM -0400, Mike M wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > With some trepidation I've come to inquire about platform requirements
> > for * after having spent a couple of hours searching and browsing
> > the archives and skimming the Handbook (very nice). I've found
> > recommendations for 800-1000 Mhz and 128-256 MB RAM machines. My
> > curiosity is not about what machine I need to start using * to support
> > live comm ops.  Rather, I want to know if a couple of dinosaurs that I
> > have in the corner can be used to do some learning.
> >
> > I have a Pentium 133Mhz 16MB RAM box with PCI bus, and a Pentium 75Mhz
> > 32MB RAM box with PCI bus.  Will these boxes work for back-to-back
> > experimentation with PRI in this configuration?:
>
> It seems to me that the Digium cards are DSPless.  That means the
> host CPU has to act as the DSP for all these lines.  I'm thinking a
> low end Pentium *might* be able to handle one FXS and one FXO port
> simultaneously.  

Hmm.  Maybe the dinosaur would make a nice answering machine.

> I wouldn't try running a PRI card in one.  Without
> compression you might be able to IAX the traffic onto a LAN connected to
> a WAN of some type.
>
> My 500Mhz celeron doesn't like to compile and take calls at the same
> time.

I've got a 266 Celeron in a laptop running W-me.  Not much of powerhouse, 
that one.  It was better when running Linux.  I like the AMD 
price-performance points personally.
>
> DSPless hardware is cheap but you have to have a serious host CPU to
> make up for it.

OK.  That makes me recall some things I read in the archives about DSPs on 
boards vs not on boards.
>
> > POTS phone-----[ * ]---PRI---[ * ]---POTS phone
> >
> > I assume that I'll need to get a couple line cards and a couple T1
> > cards.
>
> a couple of FXS cards and a couple of routers to handle a data T1/PRI.

line side? generates ringing?
http://www.marko.net/asterisk/archives/0001/0098.html

Instead of routers I was thinking of using a twist cable with RJ45 on each 
end:
1 RT - TT 4
2 RR - TR 5
4 TT - RT 1
5 TR - RR 2

The PRI link is only one meter in a captive environment.

Based on everything written so far, I think I'll build a couple of low-end 
machines sooner rather than later. 
-- 
Mike M.