[Arm-netbook] preorder and roadmap clarification

[lkcl luke]

On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 10:30 PM, Bari Ari <bari at onelabs.com> wrote:
> On 12/21/2011 04:36 PM, lkcl luke wrote:
>>
>> * the NREs (non-recurring expenses) are $2000 per "board development
>> change".  ok with each successive set, costs can be reduced a bit:
>> e.g. if all the holes are in the same place on the PCB, and the board
>> has the same connectors, and it's the same size, you save $500 for not
>> having to redo the PCB "tooling".  basically, though, it's $2000.  at
>> this stage, there will be *no* software: you'll get a board, and
>> that's it.  we will all need to pitch in, munge the lichee v2.6.36
>> code and get on with it.  (i also have a copy of the u-boot GPL source
>> code which i will also make available closer to the time).
>>
>> * assuming that the factory gets things right first time (it could
>> happen: this is a cut/paste jobbie from the existing Reference Design
>> after all) and the alpha boards are all ok, we can go straight into
>> beta with *no* NREs.  that means that the 2nd run would have more
>> people, but still no OS images etc.  orders for 5 to 50 units are
>> kinda ok at this point *if* you are a software developer and are
>> basically happy to get involved doing u-boot, debian-installer, ubuntu
>> images etc. etc.
>>
> Any chance of the community being able to review the design along the
> way to save costs? There is no actual tooling anymore, just a
> traditional tooling charge for time spent setting up gcodes, Gerber
> files and photoplots of each layer and solder mask. I'm sure the factory
> would like to minimize the time and cost to produce working boards.

 yeah, i was going to ask them to send me PDFs of the schematics.

 i'll ask them.