https://forums.openfiler.com/viewtopic.php?pid=9883#p9883 SS4200 is an Intel NAS enclosure for around $200, specs: 1G Ether, 4xSATA HDD, 1.6 intel celeron CPU, 512 MB RAM. Comes with some linux firmware or windows home server. This post tells how to install openfiler on it.
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/quagga/users/16802 email threads that provides some pieces of info about linux routing performance (from 2008 )
http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/memory-translation-and-segmentation very goom sum-up about memory mechanism in modern x86 machines. For more elabored and detailed info
http://www.halfgaar.net/why-power-failures-are-bad-for-your-data artilcle tells what happens when u pull the plug … in short nothing good will happen, so use UPS! read article for details
http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/kernel-boot-process 3rd article – explains how linux kernel boots
http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/how-computers-boot-up 2nd article, the 1st is at http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/motherboard-chipsets-memory-map
http://www.rowetel.com/blog/?p=61 IP04 (embedded asterisk on blackfin board ) power improvements
http://docs.rodecker.nl/10-GE_Routing_on_Linux.pdf paper describing linux 10G ethernet performance as per RFC2544
http://www.bestgrid.org/index.php/Xen:_assigning_PCI_devices_to_a_domain how to “export” raw pci device to xen DomU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153062 looks like a good candidate for embedded linux networking stuff