> Reading that page and the rhombus-tech pages, I was under the impression,
this board was made up of smaller modules you could simply unswitch. I was
wrong, then.
It's inaccurate to think of a computer card as a "board". It's more like a
cartridge. In fact, it's very similar to a PCMCIA card since PCMCIA card
cases are being re-used. It's contained in protective casing and based on a
strict standard. That makes it much easier for users to change and upgrade.
So there are two components: the computer card (which contains the SoC), and
the housing (which contains all your interfaces). Different housings can have
different sets of interfaces; the micro-desktop just has VGA and USB ports so
you can hook it up to peripherals and use it like a desktop computer. The
laptop has a screen, keyboard, "touchpad" (actually a small capacitive
touchscreen), a battery, and USB ports. Different housings might have other
sets of interfaces; there's a handheld game console someone is working on,
for example.
But the point is, you separate the SoC from the interfaces. That way, you can
use the same computer in multiple forms, and upgrading your computer is much
cheaper and less wasteful.
This is less noticeable for desktop computers, but it does have an effect
there, too. Desktop computers' motherboards are limited in terms of what they
can accept. Eventually, you have to replace the motherboard to upgrade the
CPU or RAM. However, any EOMA68 computer card will work in any EOMA68 housing
it can fit into, so it won't have this problem with EOMA68. You can even
flip-flop between architectures in your upgrades if you want to.
> So apart from the usb ethernet adapter,is it like the
https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXIno-LIME2
No, not at all. What you linked to is just a single-board computer. The A20
computer card can be used like that (it's an extra feature of that particular
computer card), but the primary way you use it and other EOMA68 computer
cards is by plugging it into EOMA68 housings.
