The PC is simply to big and uses more power then needed for something so simple as a user display. Look over at the Machine Kit project there is effort to put the display on a phone or tablet. But then the Arm boards like Pi 3 have graphic output that can drive a large monitor.
I think the best solution is to have visualization on a larger screen and control on a hand held touch screen. For development and engineering I think you will always need a big screen, keyboard and some kind of pointing device. But Not necessarily a PC. The computer can be physically inside a phone, tablet or notebook. It is not the screen/keyboard/pointer that is going away it is the big box chassis that people don't need. For example I'm typing this on a 27" iMac. There is no box, the computer is inside the monitor. In the future the CPU will run off battery power and be hidden inside some other part, like the keyboard, monitor or most likely your phone. Already it is the case that MOST people use hand held devices. The balance tipped a few years ago. In ten years I expect the computer CPU to be inside the phone with a keyboard and large monitor wirelessly attached when needed, then when away from the home or office you have just the small touch screen but it remains the SAME device you used on your desk at the office. Today most people have both a phone and computer. It this will change to just having one device. Already with Robots we see a new kind of motor. Not a stepper or analog servo but a "serial" controlled servo. These motors connect to a digital bus where they get commands to move to a position or to accelerate and there is a computer inside the motor housing that handles al the real-time stuff and sends status back down the serial bus cable. That likely is the best place for the real-time controller, inside the motor. This saves a lot of cabling and wires and it allows the engineering and PID loop tuning to be done just once. But machine tools last so long that improvements take decades. Eventually you will see motors with digital interfaces that can be commanded to position, velocity and acceleration. So, in the future a CNC machine might have the major part running on a phone, visualization on a wireless monitor and the real-time part inside the motor housing. But even with this new hardware the software does about the same thing I think if yu are looking at a future as described above and want to be part of that Machine kit is heard that way. But if you want to cut metal parts today It's Linux CNC or Mach On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 11:39 AM, Nicklas Karlsson < nicklas.karlsso...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Certainly in the future it will become very hard to find desktop PC > systems > > that are suitable without going to a landfill and digging one up. I'd > say > > this might happen in 10 years > > I think PC systems still will be good as user interfaces, g-code have > stayed for many years as have gerber. I however prefer to put real time on > simpler system, it need to run then needed but have few other > requirementsm, just need some clock cycles regularly. > > > Nicklas Karlsson > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------ > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
