Back around 1997, Cobalt Networks started bringing out a new line of low-cost server appliances. These were MIPS-based machines, running RM5230 CPUs at 150MHz (manufactured by Quantum Effect Design). By default, they came with 16MB RAM, and a massive 10GB IDE HDD (big for its day). Their original servers came in two models, a 1U rackmounted server, the RaQ, and their bookshelf model, the Qube.
The Qube 2700, was a smallish box, roughly a 20cm cube. Its hardware consisted of:
The RaQ had similar specifications, but also included a serial port.
Both Qube and RaQ, ran a Linux distribution based on Red Hat 5.x, with Linux kernel 2.0. On top of this, it ran various services for file sharing, mail services, web server duties, and routing tasks. It was controlled via a web-based interface.
To set them up, one simply powered the unit up, then set the IP address using the control panel. This control panel consisted of a 2-line LCD screen, 4 arrow buttons, a Select button and an Enter button. There was also a password-reset button, which was pressed using a pen (or similar implement). The panel was located on the front of RaQ systems, and at the rear on Qube systems.
The Qube 2 and RaQ 2 were a continuation of this system. These were slightly stronger machines, consisting of 250MHz RM5231 CPUs, and usually came with more memory (my Gateway Micro Server came with 32MB). They ran a very similar OS to that of their earlier cousins. The main differences were with the Qube 2. The Qube 2 introduced a serial port (like its rackmounted cousin), as well as an additional network interface. They also had newer network interfaces, running at 100Mbps, and some machines were sold with Lucent 56kbps PSTN WinModems installed in the PCI slot.
Other than that, these systems were very similar to their earlier machines.
Cobalt Networks were later acquired by Sun Microsystems. It
appeared, that these little blue boxes, were eating into Sun's
profits... as they had trouble competing against these racks full of
low-cost servers. They thus solved the problem by acquiring
Cobalt Networks.
It was at this time, Sun
(having acquired Cobalt Networks) started to really beef up their
product. The Qube 3, instead of running MIPS processors like
its
predecessors, it ran an AMD K6-2 CPU at 300MHz. Everything
else about
the machine was very similar to that of the Qube 2, however, the change
in CPU architecture made a dramatic difference to the performance of
the machine. Unlike the K6-2, the RM5230/5231 lacked
secondary cache
on the CPU, and thus was generally much slower. All machines
produced
by Cobalt Networks, from this point forward, were based of x86
processors, such as the AMD K6 and Intel Pentium III.
Since releasing the Qube 3, they released a number of servers... finishing up with the Qube/RaQ 550. Maintaining these low-cost Linux systems turned out to be too much of a burdon, and hence they discontinued production of their Qube and RaQ line. The concept lives on in some of their latest AMD64 machines... but suffice to say, it's the end of the line for the humble Cobalt server. The final nail in the coffin was their release of the source code to the custom BIOS, used in x86 Cobalt servers. Essentially, Sun no longer maintains these systems.
Well, if you have one of these
boxes... the bad news, is you can forget any formal tech
support. It's no longer supported by its vendor.
The good news, is that there are a couple of Linux distributions that
can be made to run on the Cobalt server. For x86-based
servers, you may wish to have a look around, but essentially, just
about any Linux/x86 distribution can be hacked around to run on them
(including Gentoo). For MIPS machines... look no further --
you're already here. The Gentoo/MIPS Handbook takes you
through the installation onto a Cobalt server. There are also
two other distributions on offer... Debian/MIPS, and Linux From Scratch
for RaQ2.