On Dec 21, 2007 2:09 PM, Billy Crook [email protected] wrote:
Another consideration is that this would effectively put 42 machines on the same 12v rail, and the same 5v and so on. So if a component in one machine failed in such a way that it shorted across that rail, it would take all devices on the rail down unless they each had individual load breakers for each rail. There's also a fairly good chance the short would happen during node insertion, so the breaker would need to be outside of the node, possibly ruling out the cheap bus-bar idea unless the breakers were inbetween the busbar and chasis.
if DC-powered racks were standardized, with bare copper on some spot on them, and a circuit breaker on each component meant to be slid in, that would work and would be no more complex than, say, Dell blades. In fact I wonder if Dell blades don't do that already, with the power supply being the unit that the individual "blade" is inserted into.