Characteristics of Commodity Computers
A large part of the current commodity computing marketplace is based on IBM PC compatibles. This typically means systems that are capable of running Microsoft Windows, Linux, or PC-DOS/MS-DOS, without requiring special drivers.
Some of the general characteristics of a commodity computer are:
- Shares a base instruction set common to many different models.
- Shares an architecture (memory, I/O map and expansion capability) that is common to many different models.
- High degree of mechanical compatibility, internal components (CPU, RAM, motherboard, peripheral cards, drives) are interchangeable with other models.
- Software is widely available off-the-shelf.
- Compatible with most available peripherals, works with most right out of the box.
Other characteristics of today's commodity computers include:
- ATX motherboard form factor.
- Built-in interfaces for floppy drives, IDE CD-ROMs and hard drives.
- Industry-standard PCI slots for expansion.
Some characteristics that are becoming common to many commodity computers and may become part of the commodity computer definition:
- Built-in Ethernet interface.
- Built-in USB ports.
- Built-in video.
- Built in interfaces for SATA drives.
Standards such as SCSI, FireWire, and Fibre Channel help commodotize computer systems more powerful than typical PCs. Standards such as ATCA and Carrier Grade Linux are helping to commoditize telecommunications systems. Blade servers, server farms, and computer clusters are also computer architectures that exploit commodity hardware.
Read more about this topic: Commodity Computing
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