I recommend a vehicle power supply from Tri-M systems, and a PC-104 form factor 80486 or Amd 80586 CPU for low power. Cars have more electrical problems than just the voltage brownouts at startup, and their power supply can cope with all of it. You need a heck of a lot more than just a capacitor on a off-the-shelf powersupply. The PC-104 form factor PCs are nice and small and you can get a system running with NO hard disk and therefore NO moving parts. That will outlast your your car for sure, wherease I'm not sure that a hard drive will, although if you want a lot of space, a 2.5" laptop hard drive offers plenty shock resistance thought perhaps only a few years of longevity. See www.tri-m.com for lotsa neat embedded hardware. As far as "have they heard of Linux", probably not, but I've been noticing more and more of the actual builders of PC-104 CPUs getting their hardware running Linux, especially the german companies. Warren
