On Fri, Feb 27, 2004 at 05:54:32PM +0000, Wookey wrote: > +++ Peter Vandenabeele [04-02-26 15:48 +0100]: > > On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 12:29:18PM +0100, Henrion Benjamin wrote:
Yes, two months ago... > > > Hi all, > > > > [...] > > > 3. searching for funding to make a cigar board for making cheap (under > > > 100eur) xterminals (I'm looking for a SoC with sound, eth, usb, vga; if > > > you know something nice); if you have 10.000eur to invest in this > > > project, contact me > > > > I think it would be nice to have a General Purpose board with some good > > CPU (IXP425 or one of the many new ARM92x based SoC's like Toshiba, > > NetSilicon, Cirrus Logic, Triscend/ARM, ...) that have all the peripherals > > that you mention above and this to be available at a cost that is close > > to the BOM (Bill Of Materials). When looking at the BOM (and the cost > > for a 4 layer board) we may be not too far off for the 100 EURO target > > you raise (I would guess 200 EURO for now, but this will continue to > > drop). > > > > I am also aware of local funded R&D projects at Flemish High Schools (TETRA) > > that will be investigating this. So that may help on your funding question > > as > > well. > > > > What would you need the funding for ? > > > > One discussion that could be started here or on a different list is to > > understand > > which combinations of SoC, external components and board type (4 layer, 6 > > layer) > > would be required and what would be the production cost of such a basic > > General > > Purpose board with ARM9/XScale CPU. Many people on this list have a > > detailed > > idea about which components could be used and what the cost would be. > > http://balloonboard.org/ aspires to this sort of purpose, but because it is > small, relatively well-equipped, 8-layer and built to tight tolerances it is > more like 600E than 200E (in ones). It's probably about to get a re-lay to > make it cheaper to build (mostly by improving the yiled) but it's quite hard > to make cheap arm boards that have lots of interesting stuff on them, > especially in small quantities :-) We were aiming for 200E sorts of prices > originally when we saw the BOM, but it is hard to build small-run boards > like this at anything like the BOM costs. Manufacturing, especially in > Europe, is expensive, and you always find yourself putting in a few extra > useful items, which all cost money. > > We (balloon people) certainly are very interested in what the minimal set of > things is that people want on a board. The idea of balloon is that it has a > few things many people want (CPU, RAM, FLASH, external bus, USB, Audio, CF > (for expansion - ethernet, HD, wireless) and lots of power options) and you > could build it with only some of those to keep costs down, then you add > anything else via the bus. > > Perhaps this is not the best approach, but it would be educational to hear > why not from people. Unless anyone can think of a better place, I'd suggest > that the balloon list is as good a place as any to discuss the things that > experimenters and developers want on a board, and how much they are prepared > to pay for those things. The LART list is another suitable place, although > that focuses on home-buildable arm hardware slightly more. > > Wookey I feel not comfortable at the ML of a board to ask for an other board. I'm looking for an "interresing board" that comes with a case and a PSU. Probably I looking for a printserver, a broadband router or an wifi base station that has the documentation how to hack it. Any links to such boards with case and power supply unit? Cheers Geert Stappers
pgp2caTuGPvGP.pgp
Description: PGP signature
