Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 12164 from 2003/5/22
From: Germany
Update to this train wreck of a project:
> "
we plan an upgrade to the PCB design in order to [...] reduce the>
final production cost. So far, we come up with three changes: 1) removal>
of the costly Sata3 Marvell controller, 2) removal of the SIM card slot,>
and 3) removal of the second NAND rom. [...] leaving out the Sata3>
controller was initially criticized by some of the contributing>
volunteers, but we demonstrated that existing M.2 connectors could>
easily replace its functionality using cheap M.2 to Sata3 adapters."
>
https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/2024/04/spring-restart/"
Due to the significant latency and unreliability of the original hardware designer, we are now forced to find other partners to reach our goal of having the motherboard ready for production in 2025. [...] in November, we found a new highly skilled Italian company for prototype production. This company has decades of experience and a new hardware designer with experience in PowerPC design [...]. [...] The past work on the mechanical aspects of the PCB to fit it into the Slimbook chassis was performed by a previous company that unfortunately generated some dimensioning errors in our existing prototypes therefore the new company has to fix also these problems. Even if this new company was already known as it successfully worked with ACube System in the past, it was not previously selected for working on the laptop because of its somewhat higher cost. So at this point we are left with no choice but to entrust the job to them if we really want to find out what’s wrong with the board. [...] We agreed on a complete and in-depth analysis of the entire pre-boot process of the board. Based on their checks, we may need to implement further patches or introduce additional changes to the electronic design as a worst-case scenario. The new hardware designer [...] will be able to start working on our board by January 2025. In addition to potential electronic fixes, we have already planned some hardware changes as stated in a previous post [...]. The goal is to make new prototypes with changes that will lower the overall cost and to do so, we will drop the SATA3 chipset, which is quite costly and considered obsolete due to the presence of three M.2 connectors. We will also drop the SIM card reader and one of the two EPROMs, as we only need one. Due to the unknown amount of work required, the cost of the activities to be carried out by the new company cannot be estimated. On top of that we plan to make new, hopefully final, prototypes that should cost around 1500 euros each plus around 2000 euros for setting up the prototype production plant. [...]
We have updated the current donation campaign, postponing the heat pipe redesign for a later stage, and refocused on supporting the required work to make the Powerboard Tyche function correctly. [...] we need to pay a new hardware designer that will help us understand what is wrong with the current motherboard prototypes, potentially leading to a partial electronic redesign. We need to produce a new prototype with mechanical fixes, ensuring the correct placement of the board inside the chassis and some connector placement adjustments. Additionally, we plan to drop the SATA3 chipset, the SIM card reader, and the unnecessary additional EPROM."
https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/2024/11/major-improvements-for-powerboard-tyche-despite-adversity-but-there-is-still-work-to-be-done/Meanwhile, the financial state of all campaigns/phases is as follows:
I_0. 12600 EUR: Electrical schematics [accomplished]
I_1A. 19000 EUR: PCB [accomplished]
I_1B. 5000 EUR: Fast SI bus simulations [accomplished]
I_2. 13500 EUR: Prototypes [accomplished]
I_3. 14000 EUR: Testing [accomplished]
I_4. 12500 EUR: Certification [accomplished]
I_5. 5375 EUR: Prototypes and MXM graphics cards [accomplished]
II_1. 1000 EUR: JTAG debugger [accomplished]
II_2. 5000 EUR: U-Boot [accomplished]
II_3. 10000 EUR: Fix everything that's broken [26% done]
