In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, gwicks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>Basically you are in an "all or nothing" situation. You have to first of >design your board on paper and try very hard to make sure it will be a >working board. Once you start to actually build the hardware, then you >cannot talk in terms of an initial prototype and then later full production. >This is, among other things, because the availability and price of chips in >in constant flux. > >If your paper design proves to work in practice, fine. If it doesn't you may >be able to get it to work by a bit of tweaking. You can also be in a >situation in which you get now return whatsoever on the capital. > >In other words Quanta could give £5,000 of members' money to develop a card >and see no return on that money whatsoever. Although, that is not a bad idea ... to invest in new hardware as a risk. The members of Quanta and other QL users need some new interest on the hardware side, to keep the activity more active. In addition, other individual investors could be involved, to spread the risk a little more. The incentive would be - prototypes to try out and a discount on a production model, free upgrades of related software for a period or forever. -- Malcolm Cadman _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
