JJZolx wrote: > I'd be willing to bet that it's not just cost, but the overall > cleanliness of the design and how that would be seen by the consumer. > Having the OS on a card is perfectly fine for a DIY project, but it > would be fugly for anything bought off the shelf. > > The Touch seemed to have a pretty reliable and simple mechanism for > recovery by the end user, although its implementation was no doubt > complex.
Your average consumer never sees the PCB/guts of the electronics they buy, so it really isn't an aesthetics question as far as the decision to use on-board flash versus card/socket go. It doesn't have to be fugly (in the consumer sense, as opposed the elegance of engineering sense), since you don't have to expose the socket/card outside the chassis. There are other reasons to use it, as well, including smaller volume requirement, reduces assembly and test steps on the production line, fewer failure points, lower number of components (which means fewer parts to order, receive, track, pick, etc.), and so on. But having actively participated in the design of more than 50+ products that include an OS, I can confidently say that the decision to use on-board flash versus other methods when space is not a constraint cost is a deciding factor in nearly every case. If I were writing the product spec for an open-community platform, I would write it with a socket/card for version 1, because that's the easiest/best approach to create something that can be designed easily, as well as updated easily and reliably. I would want the product to have the maximum flexibility in terms of being repaired in the field, and I think that Triode's suggestions accomplishes that. But, I'm not here to argue it. Just giving some advice in an area where I have a great deal of experience. -=> Jim ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JimC's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9428 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97881 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
