Brian Hechinger writes:
> 
> given the current crop of CPUs that are available.  which would you all choose
> to base a computer around?  i've been toying with the idea of making large
> servers based on the latest VME technology for a backplane.  maybe now is the
> time to look at that again.  NetBSD was the OS of choice as well.  :) 
> 

[ I assume you mean VME64, which tortures the definition of "latest" a bit ] 

Depends on the criteria.  I would say: 

 - Relatively low cost
 - Relatively high performance
 - Relatively reliable supply
 - Sophisticated and varied busses and other expansion
 - Abundant, low-cost or free and varied development tools
 - Abundant and varied reference designs
 - Abundant and varied support chips
 - Abundant pool of knowledgable labour 

Since you said VME, we can despense with and low-power criteria. 

Hmm...sounds like Intel.  Much less so SPARC & PPC.  Maybe a little bit MIPS 
or ARM.  Life can suck. 

Ken Seefried, CISSP