Thought someone once said the voltages between the regular and SuperMac-propretary ZIF socket were also different. But I suppose that could also be addressed in a custom board.
Voltage differences are not a big problem, though one might have to put the equivalent of the Beige G3 voltage regulator on the adapter. The Carrier cards must also do that.
Wouldn't Sierra also have to install the CPU and L2 bits on the board as well, or were you thinking of a new adapter piece that would go in between a normal G3 ZIF and the socket?
The latter. With CPUs changing all the time, there's not much point in designing a fixed CPU board. A carrier for other ZIFs is more versatile and easier to build. However, there may be two pieces of unaffordable/un-DIY-able soldering any way.
The ZIF header, AKA the PGA (the array of Pins) looks to be a surface mount array. It may be ball grid array where it attaches to the circuit board. Look at how the pins are attached to a ZIF CPU card. Second, you need a ZIF socket on top. I haven't shopped for them extensively, but they seem to run close to $30 - $50 and they may also require BGA soldering to attach to a board.
Two BGA solderings could raise the price by $200. It's hard to know without doing more research.
But if $135 buys two, that doesn't really sound too bad. That isn't much more than the old ZIF carriers, considering the specialized nature.
It would buy two bare boards. If there was a market for a couple of hundred of them the boards would come down to about $20 each or less. But there probably isn't. One would still need to add the pin grid array (pins on the bottom), ZIF socket on top, and probably the components of an adjustable voltage regulator. The latter isn't as bad as it sounds as it is just a chip and a few components. The pin grid array is quite elusive as far as finding for sale anywhere; the ZIF socket is expensive, at least in small quantities, and getting the latter two attached to the board might be prohibitively expensive. Still, it might bear more research.
Jeff Walther
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