Necrosporus has quit [Killed (verne.freenode.net (Nickname regained by services))]
ganbold has quit [Remote host closed the connection]
ganbold has joined #arm-netbook
jonasbits has quit [Remote host closed the connection]
isacdaavid has joined #arm-netbook
lkcl has joined #arm-netbook
qweo has joined #arm-netbook
<qweo>
Hello!
<qweo>
Is there any work underway on other cards?
leviathan has joined #arm-netbook
<lkcl>
qweo, there's only enough money left available to pay for materials and factory production.
<lkcl>
there's not enough left for either new cards or for living expenses for me.
<qweo>
How much would you need to be able to evaluate other SoCs?
oh2ftg has joined #arm-netbook
<lkcl>
it's about USD $2000 per set of 10 PCBs, it takes about 1-2 days to assess if the SoC is suitable. it takes me between.... 1 day and 2 weeks to track down a Reference Design, then it takes about... 3-5 weeks to do the PCB CAD work.
<lkcl>
qweo, so between 1 and 2 months, my living expenses are around USD $1500 in Taiwan (excluding cost of flights out of TW every 90 days), and it takes 5-6 weeks for the factory to get the components and order and assemble the PCBs.
<lkcl>
testing then takes between 1-4 weeks depending on whether it's a well-known SoC with good community support or not.
<qweo>
What is the maximum price for a SoC to be worth considering at current demand levels?
leviathan has quit [Read error: Connection reset by peer]
<lkcl>
interestingly the price of the SoC isn't the main concern, they're usually between $4 and $10 if china-made, and $15 to $30 if USA-designed. the primary concern is the DDR RAM.
<lkcl>
if it's not using LPDDR3 (and that's dicey as well) it's really very challenging
<lkcl>
as the entire DRAM industry has moved to DDR4 and LPDDR4.
leviathan has joined #arm-netbook
<lkcl>
it's a serious problem.
<lkcl>
2GB worth of 4 DDR3 x8 RAM ICs is *EIGHTEEN* US dollars right now
<lkcl>
a minimum production run to be viable is around 500 units. that's pushing it.
<lkcl>
1000 is much better, the factories don't get stroppy with you.
<lkcl>
it's late here i have the barcelona conference starting tomorrow
<qweo>
Ah, RISC-V
<qweo>
Have a good conference!
<qweo>
I'm hoping the new Chinese RAM manufactor will put an and to price fixing soon
<qweo>
Would you work on other form-factors lkcl? You had a larger EOMA design but no devices implementing it, right?
<qweo>
Is there any work on Ingenic or ICube-based cards?