I have gotten to learn that about notebooks, devices like sound, keyboard, touchpad and camera are often proprietary. Why are they not usb devices? Is it because the manufacturer will not risk that others can provide spare parts or make a copy of his computer?
Money. It's cheaper to do it that way... touchpads are generally PS/2, keyboards may or may not be USB (probably also PS/2, actually) -- but the doozy with them is that the controller chip is on the mainboard to eliminate yet another PCB that isn't really necessary anyways. I believe cameras generally ARE USB, but not with any connector you'd find familiar. Sound is generally integrated into the chipset, and emulates a PCI or USB device. Sometimes there are external codec chips... it's not common except on systems with chipsets so awful that sound just isn't included. Thin clients, for example.
There's also the form factor to consider -- to an extent, there are no standards for laptop gadgetry because there's no way to do that. Different laptop sizes and shapes require differently-sized and -shaped crap inside.
On Sat, May 27, 2017 at 6:16 PM, Christopher Havel laserhawk64@gmail.com wrote:
Money. It's cheaper to do it that way..
yyep. this s pretty much.. errr... on the money
There's also the form factor to consider -- to an extent, there are no standards for laptop gadgetry because there's no way to do that. Different laptop sizes and shapes require differently-sized and -shaped crap inside.
... all completely optimised and customised based around what they can get hold of, or what the reference design from intel is (which will have specific power requirements and thermal requirements)...then there is the constant demand for "thin-ness" which, as chris says, means that a CUSTOM CONNECTOR gets ordered and made... and you can't get hold of them.
ron i wrote a long time ago when developing the tablet, about using a single embedded controller which only costs $1, instead of putting in a $1 USB hub, a $1.50 USB camera, a $1 USB audio IC and so on.
it all adds up and the margins are so insanely low on laptops - ten percent FOR THE ENTIRE CHAIN right from factory to sales - that they just cannot justify the extra cost.
l.
arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk
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