[Freedombox-discuss] Debian GNU/Linux on tablet hardware

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 9:20 PM, Rob van der Hoeven
<robvanderhoeven at ziggo.nl> wrote:
> On Fri, 2011-10-28 at 19:54 +0000, Phil Endecott wrote:
>> Rob van der Hoeven <robvanderhoeven <at> ziggo.nl> writes:
>> > Mass produced hardware has a higher chance of being of good quality.
>>
>> Absolute Rubbish.  You are on a different planet.
>>
>>
>
> Mass production is expensive to start
> Mass production is even more expensive when it fails

 rob.  you - and anyone else who believes the above - need to read the
following:

http://quickembed.com/Tools/Shop/ARM/200908/43.html

The advantage of SBC is that when you define a new product, you have
only small change on baseboard/motherboard, no change on SBC/daughter
board, it saves great effort, and save much expense as the SBC is big
lots produced while baseboard can be produced in small lots, also this
helps improving the quality of your products. More detail read here.

where "here" is an article from just _one_ very very experienced PCB
design company.
http://www.quickembed.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7

* directinsight produce split-level modules for most of their iMX range.
* colibri produce split modules.
* cogcomp.com produce split modules.
* ziilabs supply their CPUs on an SO-DIMM split module.
* hardkernel.com produce split modules.

in the embedded world, the technique of splitting out the CPU+RAM+NAND
into its own separate board, thus reducing both cost and risk has been
done again, and again, and again.

l.

p.s. of course in the x86 world, with the ridiculous
northbridge-southbridge architecture and the insane power
requirements, it's completely impossible to do a full CPU+RAM+NAND
Flash in under 5 watts, let alone under 2, even if you could fit all
those ICs onto a 5cm x 7cm PCB.