There are now a number of MIPS64 processor chips with HyperTransport support. NVIDIA produce a range of nForce3 system controller chips which also use HyperTransport. Does anyone produce a board that combines the two and, to make my question relevant to this list, runs Linux? The low power requirements of the MIPS64 processors would make them an ideal choice for small form factor boards such as those used in the Shuttle XPC systems. The recent Shuttle SN85G4 combines an AMD Athlon64 and an nForce3 150. This supports a good selection of on-board peripherals together with 1 x AGP 8X/4X slot and 1 x PCI slot. Something similar using a single or dual MIPS64 processor chip would make an attractive desktop system. For the power crazy, a board with the quad processor BCM-1400 should suffice ... -- John Connett
