[Arm-netbook] Minimalist A10 board

[luke.leighton]

dr kumar, hi,

i'm cc'ing you on this bounced/discarded message, and sending it to
the list on your behalf.  if you'd like to reply to the list please
subscribe with the *exact* address "bpajith at gmail.com" and then wait
for me to approve it, otherwise i have to find the bounced/discarded
reply again and send it manually again.

other than that - welcome!

On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 11:10 AM, luke.leighton <luke.leighton at gmail.com> wrote:
> The attached message has been automatically discarded.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Ajith Kumar <bpajith at gmail.com>
> To: arm-netbook at lists.phcomp.co.uk
> Cc:
> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 12:42:52 +0530
> Subject: Minimalist A10 board
> Hello All,
>         I work on a open hardware & software project making a low cost
> science laboratory for schools/colleges, implemented using a computer
> interfaced device, named expEYES.
> The cost of this equipment is small but the total cost of ownership
> includes that of a computer.
> For this reason, I tried Raspberry Pi and it worked well.

 it "worked" well, did it?  but what kind of message are you sending
to children by deploying it?  please read this - *in full*:

   http://whitequark.org/blog/2012/09/25/why-raspberry-pi-is-unsuitable-for-education/

> However,
> RasPi costs more than US$50 in India and the Allwinner A1x CPUs looks
> better in terms of price performance ratio and availability of parts
> in small numbers.

 initially, it looks so, yes.  however it's still a level above what
you might be expecting.  i'll go over the parts list, below

> My plan is to develop a board (to run Linux) with the following specs:
>
>     Allwinner A10 cpu

 this is $7.50 in mass-volume (100k or so) as long as you schedule it
far enough in advance.  otherwise, and esp. in small volumes, you'll
be looking at around $12

>     1GB RAM  (No NAND flash, Linux from TF card only)

 around $3.50 to $4 for DDR3 800mhz Hynix ICs

>     HDMI and ( VGA output to use old monitors)

 HDMI is around $0.30, don't know about VGA

>     TF card slot

 around $1 (i think)

>     3 USB ports

 around $0.25 each, so that's $0.75

>     1 Ethernet port

 i've not been able to track these down on china sources (can anyone
help here?) but budget say $3 until you find someone who can tell you
otherwise.

>     Audio In and Out

 if you use a standard MAXIM or WM IC it'll be around $1.50 but if you
use discrete components and use 2 PWMs, and perhaps use the LRADC
(which is only 12-bit) for a microphone you could potentially get away
with around $0.50 to $0.60 of components.

>     Connector for LCD display

 $0.30 or so

>     Connector with UART, SPI, several GPIO pins etc.

 $0.30 or so

 then you'll also need an AXP209 ($1.50 in 10k+ volumes) and a bunch
of discrete components (about another $1.50) and a PCB (about $2 or
so).

 so, ading that lot up it comes to around $23.  that's excluding tax,
shipping, tax on tax, tax on shipping, tax on tax on shipping, customs
tax, tax on customs tax and tax on customs tax on shipping, packaging
and testing.

>
> & test a simple design and keep the schematics & PCB files open to
> all(same is done with expEYES). We do have ORCAD licenses and people
> who are familiar with it. I have used gEDA for developing expEYES but
> do not have any experience with Kicad.
> Ultimately the fabrication job has to be given to some firms in China
> (considering the component procurement aspect and experience in
> dealing with similar jobs) and Orcad may be a better choice for them.
> I am looking for people who can help by providing design inputs,
> required symbols & footprints to implement this idea. We do have some
> funds to get some sample pieces made, once the design part is done.

 i should be able to help you out, there.

> The main objective is to make a cheap machine for educational purpose,
> that will double as a developer board in a small manner. The component
> cost is around US$ 20/- and with tested design files floating in the
> open, one may get best prices from industry.

 you'll need to drop some of the connectors (put them on headers, so
that people can upgrade when they have more money available) to hit
that target - or increase it to say $25.

>
> Expecting the cooperation from all in this venture. Alternate ideas
> are also welcome.

 well... have you looked at either the A13 processor (i believe this
is around $5 in 100k+ volumes) or better yet the ben nanonote project?

 http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote

this has full schematics, it's a QFP 335mhz MIPS-compatible processor,
and because it's so simple it can be done with KiCAD.  it's so simple
- and lower-speed - that you don't even need auto-routing.

also i believe you'll be able to get the jz4740 (or is it the jz4720?)
for around $3.50, and 256k of DDR1 RAM should be dirt cheap as well.

full schematics are available, all designs including PCB are available
under free software licenses.

 what do you think?

l.