Hi,
I checked the latest EPIA BIOS and it says USB-HDD.
Under Linux, it uses USB and SCSI stack to access USB IDE harddisk or USB flash disk.
I figured the USB stack was deep; I may do some experimenting with Linux and booting from one of these and see what is involved. I haven't checked the price to see how these compare with Compact Flash, but the small size and ease of customer installation is attractive. The
It is just a little more expensive than CF, but its size is much smaller.
CF requires an adaptor to IDE that is a little awkward. The USB flash memory can be installed by a customer without opening the case, and saves the price of a CDROM drive (and the mechanical failure problems with a CDROM drive). All of this is from the standpoint of an embedded system and may be of no interest to clusters.
I think we can take a look at u-boot which has USB storage access already.
-Andrew