Alternatives to x86(-64)

>>60661970
>Is ARM the only real choice?
Yes.

>>60661970
there are a few MIPS boards, even ATX form factor mobos you can try.

you can get POWER Macs for a reasonable price.

Is RISC still a thing?

>>60661970
Look for old sparc stations or digital equipment.

>>60662052
Yes. Pretty much everything is RISC now, including x86.

>>60661970
Yes. Anything else and you're just crippling yourself.

If you have a lot of money you could also do an IBM Power chip

>>60662128
I just read that the wiiu used a power chip, would it be worth it to make it into a server?

>>60662119

x86 is not fucking RISC

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>>60661970
Lemote's got some MIPS desktop motherboards to choose from. I'm going for a mini ITX board with a Godson 3B1500.

>>60662162
It's a CISC instruction set but the processor itself is RISC.

>>60662187

That's like calling IL machine code.

>>60662128
a PS3 which isn't that expensive can run Linux and it's power architecture

>>60662208
No, it's like having a processor that converts CISC instructions to RISC instructions before actually processessing them, because that's exactly what's happening. x86 is internally a RISC processor.

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The only real alternative to x86 (and to ARM) is RISC-V, you can already buy RICS-V microcontroller dev-kit: https://www.sifive.com/products/hifive1/ , real chips and boards like lowRISC coming soon.

If u have money enough go for power CPU, else mips, sparc and arm r what u got

>>60662162
The interface isn't, but the implementation is.
> what is uArch?

Why do you want this?

>>60661970
>arm
no idea besides you might need ~10 sbc's
>mips
I know only one board that supports this, not really an option
>power
Used servers might be within acceptable range, eats ton of power
>sparc
Same as power

>>60661970
Depending on your price range, you could go POWER. IBM's OpenPOWER initiative has made the price on non-IBM built POWER systems come way down. Tyan makes a couple of different models I believe. You're restricted to Linux if you go that route of course. The non-IBM machines can't do AIX.

Alternatively, you could go SPARC. I think they're even more expensive on the low-end, but 2nd hand ones should be reasonable. Provided you don't need a huge amount of power. On SPARC you're limited to Solaris, Linux, and Illumos-based OSs (aka OpenSolaris).

AMD was supposed to be making ARM server boards, but I don't think the Opteron A-Series ever really got sold in any great number. Outside of the Seattle dev board (super expensive for what you get). You could look at NVIDIA's ARM dev boards as well, but I believe they're optimized for video, more than data processing.

Any other platform you're going to be looking at older machines with diminishing power/performance ratios.

>>60663238
>real chips and boards like lowRISC coming soon.

I want to believe. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up vaporware.

>>60661970
SPARC systems, Altix rackmounts and Power Macs/Xserves are decently affordable
used Origin 350/300s show up occasionally at a reasonable price point
HP Itanium/HPPA/Alpha/POWER shit is through the roof
but I don't understand why you or anyone else who asks these kinds of questions would bother when it sounds like you're just going to put Linux on it anyway and get literally the same old boring experience as a commodity solution but slower and less compatible
>>60666788
>Alternatively, you could go SPARC. I think they're even more expensive on the low-end
haha no way, T-series SPARC boxes are cheaper than shit and usually well endowed at the price point

>>60666855
Really, the price on a NEW T7 is lower than an OpenPOWER system? Huh. I'll have to take a look, I wasn't aware they were that cheap these days.

>>60666909
oh, no, for some reason I didn't think you were distinguishing new and 2nd-hand for some reason even though you did in that sentence

you probably aren't wrong when we're talking about brand new system pricing, but of course I doubt OP is seriously considering buying a brand new SPARC or POWER box considering he hasn't even taken the time to read up on what his options actually are

>>60666855
I have no idea who's driving up the prices on old HP/DEC gear, but I wish it'd stop. I really want an Alpha system, and it's driving me crazy you can't find them for under $800 these days (at least, not reliably). HP 9000s aren't any better.

IBM POWER is expensive, unless you are willing to go back to the PowerPC stuff. That is occasionally cheaper.

>>60662158
Be the first one to port linux to the Wii U

>>60666957
Well, now you've just gotten my hopes up and then dashed them. Oh well.

Related, was an ATX form-factor Itanium board ever made? Particularly one that can be had for less than the GDP of Somalia?

>>60666966
a lot of it is probably just demand as spares/replacements for equipment controllers, it's probably a big part of Sun and SGI demand as well

as for the high prices of the rackmounts as well, it beats me, maybe as spares for aging VMS clusters or something

>>60666984
wouldn't hurt to check anyway, I think Jewacle has some cheaper "cloud" offerings in the S7 series or something, but I never saw price quotes

buying new seems kind of pointless to me anyway though, any of the cheaper second-hand offerings look like they pack more than enough punch for 95% of the things you'd want to handle on a home server anyway except perhaps storage, hell my little shitbox Fire is turning 14 this year and I never had a genuine problem with it

>>60667044
never heard of one existing personally, I think that market was dead and buried before it even popped up since Merced was fucking dreadful even for OEMs let alone whitebox builders, used Altix 3xx rackmounts are probably your best hope for an inexpensive Itanium system nowadays, and they still look pretty nice

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Sun stuff is actually server-grade and you can pick it up for really cheap. This guy right here was €30, and I later picked up a Netra T1 for €8 from the same place. I might get a pair of Netra X1s, but the lack of expansion throws me off.

>>60667153
>a lot of it is probably just demand as spares/replacements for equipment controllers
How am I supposed to use this OpenVMS hobbyist license then? /s
(Currently using VAX on SIMH for that, coincidently)

>it's probably a big part of Sun and SGI demand as well
Old Sun stuff is dirt cheap by comparison, though. I paid a paltry $50 for my SPARCclassic, and only like $100 for my Ultra 1.

>buying new seems kind of pointless to me anyway though
I actually have enough pull in my IT department, I MIGHT be able to swing a SPARC or POWER for our database server in future. In that particular instance buying new is good. I'm sure with stick with x86. It's a bit of a pipe-dream anyway.

>>60667203
Is that yours? It's mighty nice. I think that was Sun's best period, from a case design point of view.

>>60667306
Yup, all mine. The whole 50kg of it. I have made a video about it, actually.
https://youtu.be/hnUl_im3Vzw

>>60667425
>Sun Microsystem's logo, best logo ever

I'ma stop you there. SGI has the best logo. Nice video though.

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>>60667283
the old beige stuff is really quite reasonable which is kind of weird since it feels like a lot of that machinery is still around, but have you ever looked at blade 1500/2500s and even worse, ultra 25/45s? shit's fucking ridiculous especially when you consider that the hardware isn't even all /that/ special, US IIIs sound a little underwhelming as a desktop to me

and if we're talking about IT purchases fuck yeah I'd go new but I was more talking like <10 concurrent user hobbyist/home server use cases where I think pretty much any of those systems would be quite well equipped to service

>>60667500
sun's is really simple and clever though
but SGI's is great especially when lit up in their later systems
couldn't choose between either

>>60668399
Yeah, late Ultra series machines are super expensive. At least they're available. I've had a bitch of a time finding ANY pre-SPARCstation machines. That Sun-3 and early Sun-4 stuff is unobtainium.