[Arm-netbook] Oh, the AllWinner A10S STB is only $33

[luke.leighton]

On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 9:36 AM, joem <joem at martindale-electric.co.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, 2013-06-24 at 17:03 +0100, luke.leighton wrote:
>> On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 4:43 PM, Jacky Lau <i90091e at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Are there any plan to develop a ultra low cost EOMA (cf?) module based
>> > on A10S?
>>
>>  does it have SATA?  if not, then adding a USB Hub ($1.50 of
>> components) and a USB-to-SATA converter ($1.00 of components) entirely
>> defeats the object of "ultra low cost" :)
>>
>>  when comparing SoCs it's necessary to compare the *entire* BOM not
>> just the SoC's cost.  PMIC, support ICs, DRAM, NAND, connectors -
>> everything.
>
> Inevitable someone will do cut down version of EOMA.

 that's fine as long as it's not the same connector / casework

> It wrecks interchangeability.

 yes - which is why i'm not going to do that.  ever.  the lesson from
X25 and more recently Q-Seven and to some extent COM-Express (with
physical size variants) is very very clear: under ABSOLUTELY NO
CIRCUMSTANCES make anything "optional" [*1]

> But as its inevitable, you might as well recommend
> something for its infrastructure into the EOMA fold such as naming
> derivatives e.g. EOMA68-Sata which reads EOMA68 minus Sata.

 not in the same casework / connector - absolutely not.

 the only thing is: we're running out of connectors/caseworks to
re-purpose.  ExpressCard is a possibility, for re-use with a
severely-cut-down set of interfaces.  only 26 pins is reallly tight
though.  but, if no SATA and no Ethernet and say LVDS, it'd be doable.

 l.

[*1] except unless it's done at the physical/firmware-negotiation
level such as multi-lane PCIe, USB1 thru 3, SATA1 thru 3, or 10 thru
Gigabit Ethernet.