If you haven't entered yet, check it out quickly. July 6, 2001 is the deadline. The specifics are available on the ELJ web site (http://embedded.linuxjournal.com/).
The folks at linux-hacker.com have sweetened the deal a bit. They have a card designed to allow you to easily add a 2.5" hard drive to the NIC and have agreed to make them available for contestants. So, if you enter the contest, let us know if you want an adaptor card.
We had some questions about the NIC hardware. Here are the questions with answers from ThinkNIC:
Q: What are the two rows of connectors under the CD-ROM drive?
A: The two rows are for a Flash chip, but you need a little print for it with the chips on it, similar to disk-on-chip. This is proprietary and is not used by the ThinkNIC people, so they have no more information on them.
Q: What video chipset is used?
A: Video is supported within the general chipset, which is an SiS 5598.
Q: Is the interface to the modem card standard?
A: The interface to the modem card is proprietary, so it cannot easily be swapped for some other purpose.
Q: How much RAM can be installed and of what sort?
A: One 168-pin, 3.3V unbuffered SDRAM module from 16MB to 256MB.
Q: What jumpers are on the motherboard?
A: J2 is the LAN Enable/Disable jumper. Short pins 1-2 to enable. JP7 is used to clear CMOS memory. Normally pins 1-2 are shorted. Short 2-3 instead to clear CMOS. JP2 is used to connect to the outside world: pins 1-2 are the suspend switch, 3-4 are the reset switch, 5-6 are the power LED, 7-8 are the HDD LED and 9-10 are the LAN-Link LED.