asterisk users - Dec 2007 - Asterisk on IBM Netvista 2800 8364-EXX?

Hello

	I'm looking at my options to build a compact, silent, headless
Asterisk server to handle one or two FXO ports. Out of curiosity, I
got one of those babies on eBay for 20E:

http://silicon-verl.de/home/flo/software/netstation-8364/

Before I spend time on this, can someone tell me if...

1. it's easy to install Linux on those things (am willing to add a
CF-to-IDE adapter to use a hard-disk instead of tweaking Linux so that
it doesn't write too many cycles to the CF card), and

2. whether it has enough horsepower to use a PCI TDM card (The OpenVox
A400P01 clone of Digium) to handle incoming PSTN calls, and possibly a
couple of conference calls with MeetMe?

BTW, am I correct in understanding that the difference between TDM
cards and the X100/X101 cards is the same as between controller-based
modems and win/softmodems: The former is self-sufficient since it has
a CPU, while the latter is cheaper because it outsources signal
processing to the computer's CPU?

Thank you.

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:51:44 +0100, Vincent wrote:
>Hello
>
>	I'm looking at my options to build a compact, silent, headless
>Asterisk server to handle one or two FXO ports. Out of curiosity, I
>got one of those babies on eBay for 20E:
>
>http://silicon-verl.de/home/flo/software/netstation-8364/
>
>Before I spend time on this, can someone tell me if...
>
>1. it's easy to install Linux on those things (am willing to add a
>CF-to-IDE adapter to use a hard-disk instead of tweaking Linux so that
>it doesn't write too many cycles to the CF card), and
>
>2. whether it has enough horsepower to use a PCI TDM card (The OpenVox
>A400P01 clone of Digium) to handle incoming PSTN calls, and possibly a
>couple of conference calls with MeetMe?
>
>BTW, am I correct in understanding that the difference between TDM
>cards and the X100/X101 cards is the same as between controller-based
>modems and win/softmodems: The former is self-sufficient since it has
>a CPU, while the latter is cheaper because it outsources signal
>processing to the computer's CPU?
There's no reason why that could not work for you. With a 266 MHz CPU
you have a platform roughly comparable to a Soekris Net4801. That means
limited transcoding. 

I have been using an HP T5700 thin client as my server platform. It's a
little more ideal as it has a 1 GHz Transmeta CPU, upgradable RAM, and
multiple USB ports. These are readily available for around $100 each
from Ebay or high-tech recyclers.

When equipped with the optional expansion chasis the T5700s support one
PCI card, and so could handle a TDM400 for your FXOs. My own experience
with X101p cards was not good so I eventually went wholly IP, porting
my DIDs to a reliable ITSP.

You should probably consider Astlinux or Askozia as these are both
designed to boot & run from flash media. Astlinux is very flexible, but
Askozia has a nice GUI.

Michael
--
Michael Graves
mgraves<at>mstvp.com
o713-861-4005
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sip:mjgraves at pixelpower.onsip.com
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