In this context, &quot;basic computers&quot; means Commodity&#x2F;Off The Shelf.  Instead of buying some high-end &quot;enterprise&quot; server from Sun &#x2F; HP &#x2F; Dell, using a regular cheap (enough) box and lots of them.  This started with servers, but you now see standard x86 boxes being turned into high-speed packet processors (&quot;routers&quot;) instead of paying someone like Cisco $15k for a switch.