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Today, there are fewer and fewer general business computing requirements that cannot be met with off-the-shelf commodity computers. It is likely that the low-end of the supermicrocomputer genre will continue to be pushed upward by increasingly powerful commodity microcomputers.
== Characteristics of commodity computers ==
A large part of the current commodity computing marketplace is based on [[IBM PC compatible]]s.
This typically means systems that are capable of running [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Linux]], or [[PC DOS]]/[[MS-DOS]], without requiring special drivers.
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 ([[Central processing unit|CPU]], [[Random-access memory|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.
Other characteristics of today's commodity computers include:
* [[ATX]] motherboard form factor.
* Built-in interfaces for [[floppy drive]]s, [[Advanced Technology Attachment|IDE]] CD-ROMs and hard drives.
* Industry-standard [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI]] slots for expansion.
Some characteristics that are becoming common to many commodity computers and may become part of the commodity computer definition:
* Built-in [[Ethernet]] interface.
* Built-in [[Universal Serial Bus|USB]] ports.
* Built-in video.
* Built-in interfaces for [[Serial ATA|SATA]] drives.
Standards such as [[SCSI]], [[IEEE 1394 interface|FireWire]], and [[Fibre Channel]] help commodotize computer systems more powerful than typical PCs. Standards such as [[Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture|ATCA]] and [[Carrier Grade Linux]] are helping to commoditize [[telecommunication]]s systems. [[Blade server]]s, [[server farm]]s, and [[computer cluster]]s are also [[computer architecture]]s that exploit commodity [[Computer hardware|hardware]].
== Deployment ==
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