[Arm-netbook] EOMA server standard

[luke.leighton]

On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 10:59 PM, Baybal Ni <nikulinpi at gmail.com> wrote:
> Answering my own question, I just thought that PHY's are integrated
> too deep within the networking architecture.

 effectively, yes.  whatever is chosen as the "standard", that then
*has* to be what is either supported by the SoC, or it has to be
converted to irrespective of what the SoC might happen to have.

 it's the same thing with LVDS, if you remember (or MIPI - let's use
MIPI because it's more modern).  let's say that EOMA-68 had MIPI
multi-lane taking up only say... 15 pins (whatever it is) instead of
24-pin RGB/TTL taking up 28.  MIPI would be great, right!  more pins!
free up space, make some more functions yaaay!

 ... except, now if you want a low-cost LCD with a low-cost SoC,
here's what you have to do as the BOM:

 * chassis: low-cost LCD ($10 say)
 * chassis: not-really-very-cheap RGB/TTL-to-MIPI converter IC ($5 but
however much it is you don't care how much: it's an overhead, plain
and simple)
 * botched-EOMA-68-standard-CPU-CARD: not-really-very-cheap
MIPI-to-RGB/TTL converter IC (another $5 say)

you get the picture?  whatever it is, because you picked a
non-lowest-common-denominator standard (MIPI is by percentage-wise of
availability across SoCs *so* not common) you then forced *everyone*
to add a massive and critically *uncompetitive* overhead to *all* such
"low-cost" products.

 thus destroying any chance that the standard might have.

i'm keenly aware that picking the lowest-common-denominator also
eliminates some of the possibilities for using built-in LVDS, or
built-in audio, or built-in.... whatever-it-is, but... tough.

at some point down the line, it will be possible to get an Integrated
EOMA-68 I/O chip done, which has all the features built-in that are
required of e.g. a laptop, or a tablet, or a TV, or a camera and so
on.  but, not right now.  no, actually cancel that: i'm not going to
say "no" :)

anyway, that's quite a bit of explanation of why it's hard to pick one
particular PHY interface :)  i still don't exactly know what the
answer is, though.  i'm 50% ready to give up on "standardising" for
servers, and 50% still thinking "this really really should be
possible, y'ken".

l.