[for the benefit of the freedombox list, cc'd here: a discussion is taking place - again - on debian-arm about the cost and availability of ARM-based systems. a chipset has been found which meets eben's criteria in mass-volume. actually, is a whopping 25% _below_ eben's expectations of $20, and is 40% lower than the raspberrypi price, with, being a 1ghz Cortex A8 instead of a 700mhz ARM11, roughly 2 to 2.5x better performance.]
On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 4:07 PM, Phil Endecott <[email protected]> wrote: > [email protected] wrote: >> >> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 02:37:06PM +0000, Phil Endecott wrote: >>> >>> Why do you think that? I have personally never seen an "Android >>> motherboard" >>> offered for sale at all, let alone for a low price. >> >> The i.MX53 LOCO board has an android BSP available. Does that qualify? > > It does to me, but Rob doesn't seem to like these "not mass produced", > "relatively expensive" boards; I think his idea of an "android motherboard" > is something from a no-name Chinese tablet manufacturer. i am in touch with such a "no-name" chinese tablet manufacturer. i can negotiate one of those "into existence"... *if* people are willing to commit - publicly so that i can refer the factory to the archives - to buying some. let's work through the costs, and i'll ask the factory to confirm, but it'll be roughly something like this: * the mass-production BOM of a 1ghz Cortex A8 system using the chiprise aka bmorn aka allwinner SoC will be - literally - around the $15 mark. * morphing the "Reference Board Design" into a "FreedomBox-like" device will be about 10 days @ $150 per day (NOT $150 per hour, REALLY $150 per day). * back-caclulating that cost to include it in to the first.. say... 100 units, that's $15 extra per unit. * scaling up on the BOM to 100-only quantities, you prooobbbably need to add about 60% to 70%. * $15 * 1.7 = $25.50 plus $15 amortised over 100 units is $40. * add a reasonable profit margin - say 25% (that's *really* generous btw), that's now $50. * $50 plus shipping, tax and a box, that's about $80 to get it into your hands. $80 is still a f*** of a lot lower than $125 *excluding* shipping for a beagleboard. and, once it hits mass-production and goes world-wide, that $80 becomes about $35, and if you do a "Special FreedomBox Special Order" of 100,000 units, that $35 becomes about $25 *including* shipping and tax. so it's up to you, folks. if you want to see something like this happen, you have to say so. btw - if you want to take over negotiations with the factory, i am quite happy to put anyone who wishes to take over in touch with the factory. i will give you their email address, you can talk directly with them. l. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/capweedxhtvqjsbg+m1w5b5oekcs54h_4oxm-cjjjtfur14x...@mail.gmail.com
