n.b.(1)- I am referring to PCI-X, not PCIe. I am not one of the 99% of the public who is too stupid to know the difference.
n.b.(2)- I have very little experience using Macs, and my desire is to force this box to be as un-Mac-like as possible. I am simply cautious about potential quirks related to the Apple motherboard, etc.
I have a G4 Power Mac that has 4 PCI-X slots, running only Linux as a CLI. Since there is very little that can be done with this machine these days, I would like to use it as a terminal server to manage various equipment through serial ports via telnet/SSH.
If I could find some multiport serial adapters that take advantage of the wider PCI-X bus, is there anything funky about the Mac implementation that would prevent me from plugging in any random IBM, Dell, HP, or other server/industrial serial adapter card? Or is the form factor the ultimate arbiter of hardware compatibility?
Keep in mind that I will never run any Apple OS on this thing, strictly Linux.
The reason why I want to use PCI-X cards over basic PCI cards is that I plan to run quad- or octo-port cards in each slot and take advantage of some of the features (e.g., powered pins) only available in the industrial-grade cards.
n.b.(2)- I have very little experience using Macs, and my desire is to force this box to be as un-Mac-like as possible. I am simply cautious about potential quirks related to the Apple motherboard, etc.
I have a G4 Power Mac that has 4 PCI-X slots, running only Linux as a CLI. Since there is very little that can be done with this machine these days, I would like to use it as a terminal server to manage various equipment through serial ports via telnet/SSH.
If I could find some multiport serial adapters that take advantage of the wider PCI-X bus, is there anything funky about the Mac implementation that would prevent me from plugging in any random IBM, Dell, HP, or other server/industrial serial adapter card? Or is the form factor the ultimate arbiter of hardware compatibility?
Keep in mind that I will never run any Apple OS on this thing, strictly Linux.
The reason why I want to use PCI-X cards over basic PCI cards is that I plan to run quad- or octo-port cards in each slot and take advantage of some of the features (e.g., powered pins) only available in the industrial-grade cards.
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