Commodity computer - Definition and Overview

Commodity computers are computer systems manufactured by many vendors, based on industry standard architecture (not to be confused with the ISA bus). Today this means systems that are capable of booting PCDOS if desired, or a standard Windows or Linux install CD without requiring special drivers. Many of these systems may run more efficiently with such drivers, but if special drivers are required just to boot up, it isn’t a commodity microcomputer.

A commodity computer is a one that you drop into your shopping cart as you walk down the aisle of your local computer store. Unlike boutique computers (such as the Apple Macintosh), software compatibility is taken for granted and commodity computers are chosen based on price and features from among those offered by many different manufacturers.

Commodity computers are used for many things, from the most common desktop systems running word processors and spreadsheets, to large, complex cluster systems.

Some of the general characteristics of a commodity computer are:

• Shares a base instruction set common to many different models.
• Shares an architecture (memory, I/O map and expansion capability) that is common to many different models.
• High degree of mechanical compatibility, internal components (CPU, RAM, motherboard, peripheral cards, drives) are interchangeable with other models.
• Software is widely available off the shelf.
• Compatible with most available peripherals, works with most right out of the box.

Some of the specific characteristics of today's commodity computer:

• Will boot PCDOS.
• Will boot a current Windows install CD and install successfully.
• Will boot a current Linux install CD and install successfully.
• ATX motherboard footprint.
• Built-in interfaces for floppy drives, IDE CDROMs and hard drives.
• Industry-standard PCI slots for expansion.

Some characteristics that are becomming common to many commodity computers and may become part of the commodity computer definition:

• Built-in Ethernet interface.
• Built-in USB ports.
• Built-in video.
• Built in interfaces for SATA drives.

See also commodity computing