Talk:Rack unit

message: It might be useful to get around to mentioning what it's a rack of (electronic equipment) earlier.Tom Permutt (talk) 04:09, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

message: recently ran into a product that was listed as "Mini 1U" form factor, and i was hoping to find some clarification within this article on exactly what that does, or dorsn't-much mean  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.35.136.136 (talk) 10:40, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Mini-1U" - What is it? 

message: Does one most commonly pronounce e.g. "4U" as "four you" or "four units"? I think this might be useful info to add. 196.215.118.141 (talk) 21:17, 15 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronunciation? 

message: In both Firefox and Internet explorer with SXGA resolution, the first image goes through the horizontal rule.  Just nitpicking. 75.34.28.120 06:26, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  repositioning/layout fix for the picture 

message: Surely the dimensions of relay racks (an older name for 19" racks) 
pre-dates the use of video tape equipement in the porn industry!
VHS video tape dimension has nothing got to do with servers, so don't ruin the discussion --Ramu50 (talk) 02:41, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Porn industry? 

message: So is the term Rack Unit and Module refer to same thing. Except RU is use for horizontally stacked server, while modules is use for vertical shelved blade servers and 24 modules is equal to 1 cabinet?
I ask this, because the technician at Cray (Kraken) Supercomputer use this terminology, but i am not sure is this a common terminology. --75.154.186.99 (talk) 03:12, 18 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: No, I'm not aware of the term "module" being generally associated with a specific physical form-factor. Letdorf (talk) 12:17, 18 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  modules and cabinet 

message: Any significant reason why the mention that the unit is precisely equal to vershok (thus these two are just the different names for the same measurement unit) should be left out of the article? My opinion is that this equality, like an Euler's formula, brings together two distant worlds, the Ancient Russia and the modern datacenters, thus it must (not just worths to) be present in the articles. Honeyman (talk) 21:01, 22 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It could be considered somewhat trivial, but I wouldn't object to it being reinstated. Regards, Letdorf (talk) 13:14, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: But everything that is 1 3/4" deep, tall, or wide corresponds to a stupid vershok.  Gee, do you know that 1 3/4" nails from Home Depot are exactly one vershok long? Screws too!  It's completely uninteresting that old Russians decided to give a name to 1.75 inches, a common size based on quarter-inch increments. Is this really encyclopedic info or just useless trivia?192.139.122.42 (talk) 19:52, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vershok 

message: Does anyone have some insight to share (i.e. add to the page perhaps) about how these silly dimensions were chosen for rack units? Why is the width of a panel 19" wide, but the spacing between the screws (a much more important measure) uses some non-intuitive size invoking tiny fractions of an inch? Ironically, actual equipment deviates from the 19" panel width quite significantly anyway, and mounting holes are often oval-shaped. Furthermore, why the silly repeating pattern where groups of three holes are closer together than the gaps within each group?  A design with equally-spaced holes is obviously superior, allowing for half-size increments in both size and position of equipment. Do imperial measures damage the brain so much that its users have to compound the stupidity? 192.139.122.42 (talk) 19:58, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: When I was young these  were known as Post Office racks. I think they were used by the (British) Post office who ran the phone system in Britain. They can be seen in use on the Colossus computer at Bletchley park. The screws are space in the manner they are so units can only be placed in whole multiples of U's on a rack. I would have thought they are 19inches wide because this give "standard" 18 inches of useful space. A foot is too small and 2 feet is too large. john f 178.101.148.182 (talk) 22:05, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

text: I second this request, both here and for the "19 rack" as a whole. Those whacky dimensions look like an accidental de-facto standard, not anything designed. --Musaran (talk) 19:48, 9 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  History? 

message: Is there any reason why the measurements in the article are expressed in Imperial units and not metric units which, by the way, is the acceptable international standard and has been for decades?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.15.235.51 (talk) 12:03, 23 January 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Because these specifications originated in the USA some time ago, when Imperial units were very much the norm. SI equivalents are quoted in the article. Also, it's a lot easier to talk about "19-inch racks" than "48.26 cm racks" :-). Regards, Letdorf (talk) 23:26, 23 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unit of Measurement 

message: The following is copied directly from the norm IEC 60297-3-100, edition 1.0, dated 2008-11:
5 Front panels
5.1 Front panel dimensions
The height increment of a front panel is 1U, equal to 44,45 mm.
Thus is would seem that the actual value of the U unit is in fact 44.45 mm, NOT 44.50 mm as stated in the article. This makes a lot of sense, since the system is obviously based on Imperial units, and 1.75 inch is in fact 44.45 mm. 
I would suggest that this be corrected in the article.
Gjensen (talk) 16:43, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  1U = 44.45 mm, not 44.50 mm 

message: In conjuction with , I have developed a new template:rackunit to make it easy to give the size of an nU element in terms familiar to non-technical readers. Synax like "This is a  rack-mounted server" produces "This is a  rack-mounted server". Feedback welcome. Enjoy. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 19:55, 29 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Copied here for editor convenience. --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 16:59, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  template:rackunit