I agree that it would be impossible for anyone to make this device such that it *never* had to be replaced...
But I imagine that it is still quite possible to reduce the amount of churn. The real problem is more political than it is technical, however, and that's where I expect the most hurdles. *ASB **http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker* <http://xeeme.com/AndrewBaker>* **Providing Virtual CIO Services (IT Operations & Information Security) for the SMB market…*** On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 8:42 PM, Ken Schaefer <[email protected]> wrote: > Whilst it's relatively easy for a current product to be backwards > compatible with older integration mechanisms (i.e. supporting IDE ports, or > PCI slots), I haven't seen much in the way of current products allowing new > integration mechanisms to be added. > > I think that's Michael's point - eventually a new port or bus (e.g. USB v4 > or PCIe v10) will come along. It will have different power requirements, or > will have such bandwidth that it'll overwhelm the CPU/memory or other > components of the system etc, so even if you could somehow retrofit the new > bus (and thus get access to the new components attached to it), you'd need > to replace your whole phone anyway. > > Cheers > Ken > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Ben Scott > Sent: Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:28 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] OT: A completely modular phone > > On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 7:56 PM, Michael B. Smith <[email protected]> > wrote: > > However, let us remember, the original IBM PC. IBM published all the > > info and there were many copies. However, the original BUS design was > > crap. Eventually, that caused a re-design of the entire PC (leaving > > out a lot of history there, but true nonetheless). > > Right, but some of the history you leave out is significant. During the > times of transition, it was common to have more than one interface type in > a system. ISA and EISA co-existed, ISA and VLB co-existed, ISA and PCI > co-existed, PCI and PCIe co-existed. One saw PCI, ISA, and VLB on the same > mobo. Checking now, I find boards with PCIe, PCI, and ISA slots.[1] At no > point did everything need to be thrown away. > There was no "flag day".[3] > > If we want to posit the modular phone, we might posit such an upgrade > path there, too.[4] > > Now, durability of the interconnect, that might be a bigger problem. > Phones get beat up a lot more than most modular connectors. > > Another technical issue is that antennas need to be of certain sizes and > shapes to work properly. You can't just have a tiny block for an antenna > and get good performance. > > -- Ben > > [1] Dang ISA just won't die.[2] > > [2] There's a reason for this beyond the usual legacy inertia. ISA is > basically just most of the 8086 CPU pins brought to a card edge connector, > which makes it cheap and easy to hook into, as long as you can live with > the limitations. > > [3] http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/flag-day.html > > [4] We have to speculate, as absolutely no technical information is > provided on Phonebloks.[5] > > [5] I strongly suspect technical detail simply doesn't exist, and the > whole thing was dreamed up by someone as a neat concept, but without much > understanding of the engineering needed. > > > > >
