On Tuesday 15. September 2015 19.18.26 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Paul Boddie paul@boddie.org.uk wrote:
It occurred to me that if only we had EOMA-68 boards out there, maybe people wouldn't be so enthusiastic to go to the trouble of making new boards and running the gauntlet of crowdfunding.
i knooooow :)
here's the thing though:
(1) i have to get the standard right for a 10-year-old and greater period (2) i have to get CPU Cards (plural) designed, sponsored, and tested (3) i have to prove that it is, indeed, simpler and lower-cost to make carrier boards.
so that's what i'm doing.
to explain, first: this project has an absolute top priority of being *right* (defined as "viable long-term") over being "rushed to profitability".
Sure, I understand that. But what worries me a little is that experience isn't being gained to possibly refine the standard or develop for it. Of course, I'm writing this with only a superficial knowledge of what has gone on in the past, and it is possible that people have done things with previously-produced hardware that has informed the effort.
second: it's no good having just the one CPU Card out there. people won't comprehend the modularity concept if there is only the additional cost of having a single processor available.
I understand this, too. It's also useful to have different devices they can be used in as well, and I worry that these won't come about without any cards being available.
One thing in the back of my mind (and part of a long list of things that I could consider doing) is helping to design such a device, and for that I suppose I need to collect links to documentation that might help me get started.
third: even i was unable to move the micro-desktop board (which is only 4in x 4.5in) forward because i had designed it as a 4-layer PCB - costs are around $400 for qty 5 4-layer prototype boards on a 3 week turnaround by complete contrast, a 7-day turnaround for qty 5 2-layer prototype (bare copper) boards with larger vias is around $40 for qty 2, and around $100 for qty 5.
so.... it's getting there, paul.
Yes, prototyping gets expensive for advanced stuff, I suppose, and since we're not part of the normal industrial operations that can do this efficiently (in terms of costs and other things), we're at a disadvantage.
Still, I wonder what those of us reading this list might be able to do to move the effort forward in our own way.
Paul