[Arm-netbook] HDMI variant low profile ethernet socket

[mike.valk at gmail.com]

2013/11/15 joem <joem at martindale-electric.co.uk>

> Hi,
>
> Luke/Aaron, you need to get some shoes on
> and go make a mini HDMI connector that is a little bit smaller (so as to
> prevent it being used as a video connector) and use it as ethernet
> connector.
>
> Notice all the tablets out there don't have physical ethernet?
>

A lot of those ultra-thin laptop don't have Ethernet ports as well. Laptop
manufactures are simply ditching Ethernet in favour of Wifi and the added
sales on USB ethernet Dongles.


>
> For lack of a decent substitute ethernet connector that is thin enough
> to go on a tablet.
>

In the old days there were Ethernet PCMCIA Ethernet cards, type 1, with a
slide out frame for ethernet.
Like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:XJACK_network_card_extended.jpg

But haven't seen that for ages. Probably because the slide frame is very
fragile.


>
> It could be designed so that future EOMAs could have it and so too
> should the Plasma Active tablets. And thin stacks of future server
> boards.
>
> You guys need to use your industrial contacts and muscle and go pull
> some strings to make it happen. The alternative is I go make it in
> mini-HDMI size and just make cable adapter (which will lead to
> confusion). I'm sure my adventure will end in tears and a sorry mess but
> it be better than nothing.
>

Luke et.al. have a lot of brains and will power. Guys like Intel/Apple have
the needed muscle/influnce/bulk-sales. To make that happen. But alas, they
don't seem interested. Nor the IEEE taskforce resposible for the Ethernet
standard.

Come to think of it, the RJ-45 size was already an issue in the PCMCIA
days, and nothing changed.


>
> HDMI has at least 4 tx/rx pairs and a lot more - just use the tx/rx
> pairs only and its good enough to get gigabit ethernet.
> The ethernet magnetics chip is very small these days costing under $1,
> so the overall solution could fit inside an EOMA.
>
> There is some standard out there milling around
> to support ethernet through HDMI, but I don't fancy that as a better
> solution than a low profile dedicated ethernet connector long overdue
> for the tablet market to replace the bulky RJ connector.
>

The HDMI 1.4 standard includes a few pins for Ethernet, max 100Mbps. One
could make a breakout cable. Splitting the Ethernet and HDMI outside the
tablet and no need to "invent" an extra connector nor adding it to the
eoma-68 carries or card-fronts

Too bad those are not on the market yet.


>
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