Concerned about future 32 bit server support

[David Fletcher]

On Tue, 2017-08-08 at 17:57 -0400, Robert Heller wrote:
> 
> Generally pure silicon will last almost forever. Hard drives get old
> and die,
> PS get old and die, fans get old and die, but a uProcessor is
> forever... OTOH,
> it does get harder and harder to get old-style interface replacement
> hard
> drives (can you still get IDE [PATA] hard drives? 8-bit wide SCSI? AT
> Power
> supplies? ISA interface boards?).  At some point it might make sense
> to 
> replace the old gear.

This is a custom built system, in a self designed and fabricated case.
The motherboard with the 32 bit processor is mini ITX format, BUT it is
single 12V supply with a voltage converter on board which puts out the
12V and a 5V supply on the standard type hard drive power sockets next
to the SATA data connectors. At the moment it has a 2TB Toshiba hard
drive installed. The fan is a bog standard off the shelf 60mm fan that
runs directly off the 12V supply, which can easily be replaced if
necessary. The power supply is a standard open frame switch mode
industrial unit, which again can easily be replaced if necessary.

If I can source an equivalent board with a 64 bit processor which can
be set to automatically boot when power is applied, it would be easy
enough to swap it, it's just that I'm the sort of person who dislikes
chucking out perfectly good working electronics that are doing a
perfectly good job.

Dave