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by chrisBob 4450 days ago
The SODIMM form factor is interesting. I know in this case they are just using it because the connectors are easy to come by, but are there any examples of a computer designed to fit in a RAM socket and do processing rather than just statically storing the memory information?
3 comments

This is a somewhat common form factor for embedded processor development boards. Critical Link has a whole line of products like this: http://www.criticallink.com/product-cats/system-on-modules/ .
Plenty. Read LinuxGizmos http://linuxgizmos.com (nee LinuxDevices) to keep abreast of them.
I recall one processor upgrade for a 1990-era Mac that slotted into the L2 cache slot, back when L2 cache was on the motherboard and used a similar DIMM format.

It was extremely unusual, but apparently worked.

I had one of those... it was installed on a IICI, I think it was manufactured by sonnet tech and it was marketed as a PPC upgrade card for the motorolla 68040

Here is a list of all of the sonnect upgrade cards and how they connected http://www.everymac.com/upgrade_cards/sonnettech/

Edit: Added link

Yeah, that was the one. I had a hard time tracking down the proper link, but it's on the page you linked: http://www.everymac.com/upgrade_cards/sonnettech/crescendo_g...

It's clever and insane at the same time. Most processor upgrades physically replace the processor, but this one just bypassed it.