[Arm-netbook] SoC + external graphics

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 3:55 AM, Bluey <bluey at smallfootprint.info> wrote:
> Hi Luke,
>
> Forgive me if this has been discussed before but has the possibility of supporting a model where by a dedicated GPU could be installed in a second slot in order to work in concert with an EOMA SoC?

 not a snowball / cat in hell's chance.

 how would it communicate?  what's the means by which the Card would
communicate with the GPU?

 most GPUs are done by PCI express which is... um... 32 GIGABYTES per
second (!!!!!) on a PCIe 3.0 x16 system.

 the amount of power needed for that *alone* far exceeds the entire
5.0 watt power budget for EOMA68 Cards!  and that's just for *driving*
the PCIe signals!

 i'm going overboard somewhat: there is actually a way: use
DisplayLink technology.  DisplayLink has older products such as the
UD160A using USB 2.0, and their newer ones use USB 3.0 and have
improved the capabilities of what they can do / draw.

 however we cannot *rely* on any given Card being *guaranteed* to have
USB 2.0, some Cards are perfectly well permitted to provide even USB
1.1 (it's not recommended but it's possible).  using DisplayLink is
something i put somewhere in the notes if Housing Designers really
really want to create a Dual Screen Housing.

l.