Mnyb wrote: > Note that Touch is short of memory too for unfathomable reasons they > chose to go with a really small memory in times when memory is cheap
Well, this points out that your experience in the embedded world leaves a lot to be desired. Memory is cheap for PCs, at least relative to what it used to cost. Embedded systems are not generic PCs, and the economics of embedded system are very different from a garden variety Dell or HP PC. Embedded systems are designed to be sold in huge quantities, and every nickel of cost is important, as is every square millimeter of PCB surface. Nearly all embedded CPUs also have embedded memory, and you can't increase it just by putting in another stick, even if the additional stick was free. Often, when you need more memory on an embedded chip, that changes the size of the chip, which changes the PCB layout. Adding $10 to the cost, in quantity 10,000 units for the board has huge impact on the product line, and will add as much as $50 to the retail price. The Touch as $350 per unit is not nearly as attractive, and will sell far fewer units. When the expected sales are lower, then the engineering costs have to be spread over fewer units, which raises the retail price. The leads quickly to a death spiral. The company was originally called SlimDevices, for a reason. I'm not a fan of all the folks whining here that they want the Touch to be a real computer, selling for $300. If you want a real server, make one, or buy one. The TinySC is limited. Get used to it. -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com/ _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
