On Fri, Feb 27, 2004 at 05:54:32PM +0000, Wookey wrote: > +++ Peter Vandenabeele [04-02-26 15:48 +0100]: > > On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 12:29:18PM +0100, Henrion Benjamin wrote: Yes, two months ago... > > > Hi all, > > > > [...] > > > 3. searching for funding to make a cigar board for making cheap (under > > > 100eur) xterminals (I'm looking for a SoC with sound, eth, usb, vga; if > > > you know something nice); if you have 10.000eur to invest in this > > > project, contact me > > > > I think it would be nice to have a General Purpose board with some good > > CPU (IXP425 or one of the many new ARM92x based SoC's like Toshiba, > > NetSilicon, Cirrus Logic, Triscend/ARM, ...) that have all the peripherals > > that you mention above and this to be available at a cost that is close > > to the BOM (Bill Of Materials). When looking at the BOM (and the cost > > for a 4 layer board) we may be not too far off for the 100 EURO target > > you raise (I would guess 200 EURO for now, but this will continue to > > drop). > > > > I am also aware of local funded R&D projects at Flemish High Schools (TETRA) > > that will be investigating this. So that may help on your funding question as > > well. > > > > What would you need the funding for ? > > > > One discussion that could be started here or on a different list is to understand > > which combinations of SoC, external components and board type (4 layer, 6 layer) > > would be required and what would be the production cost of such a basic General > > Purpose board with ARM9/XScale CPU. Many people on this list have a detailed > > idea about which components could be used and what the cost would be. > > http://balloonboard.org/ aspires to this sort of purpose, but because it is > small, relatively well-equipped, 8-layer and built to tight tolerances it is > more like 600E than 200E (in ones). It's probably about to get a re-lay to > make it cheaper to build (mostly by improving the yiled) but it's quite hard > to make cheap arm boards that have lots of interesting stuff on them, > especially in small quantities :-) We were aiming for 200E sorts of prices > originally when we saw the BOM, but it is hard to build small-run boards > like this at anything like the BOM costs. Manufacturing, especially in > Europe, is expensive, and you always find yourself putting in a few extra > useful items, which all cost money. > > We (balloon people) certainly are very interested in what the minimal set of > things is that people want on a board. The idea of balloon is that it has a > few things many people want (CPU, RAM, FLASH, external bus, USB, Audio, CF > (for expansion - ethernet, HD, wireless) and lots of power options) and you > could build it with only some of those to keep costs down, then you add > anything else via the bus. > > Perhaps this is not the best approach, but it would be educational to hear > why not from people. Unless anyone can think of a better place, I'd suggest > that the balloon list is as good a place as any to discuss the things that > experimenters and developers want on a board, and how much they are prepared > to pay for those things. The LART list is another suitable place, although > that focuses on home-buildable arm hardware slightly more. > > Wookey I feel not comfortable at the ML of a board to ask for an other board. I'm looking for an "interresing board" that comes with a case and a PSU. Probably I looking for a printserver, a broadband router or an wifi base station that has the documentation how to hack it. Any links to such boards with case and power supply unit? Cheers Geert Stappers
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