Hi Folks, who wants to design and build a laptop out of an EFIKA?

We have a budget and a need for 5-10 prototypes. If you are interested in developing this product please contact us.

This is an employment opportunity.

Best regards,
R&B :)

You know, from my point of view as a designer, it would help if you post the relevant information about the motherboard. CAD-/exact drawings of the backplate and the mobo itself would be a start.

Hopefully someone will pick up the task... its sure as hell wont be an easy one if done properly.

@Hooligan

All who respond directly by email will have access to all necessary information, including everything you have mentioned and more if they are serious about being involved in this Project.

R&B

Sounds like it would be a lot of fun to do, but doesnt the Efika and its limited RAM limit what you can do with it? 128MB isnt much do work with. Its the one thing that is keeping me from making the decison to get one now other then MorphOS not being available for it yet

something like this could be doable, a simple squareshaped case with a folding screen

X360_laptop_main.jpg

Too bad I'm short of free time...

I have almost everything to complete that.
I've bought psu, small usb keyboard, lcd 15".
But i dont have time to work on that. It's possible that i will put my efika into "Geit" efika case.

Too bad that efika doesn't have gfx chip on board.

I think it's a wonderful project anyway... Building a really portable computer (not those 17" mosters), with long live battery is a nice thing... I can't take the project, by two main causes, 1) I have little free time too, 2) I have null desingning skills xD... Although, I would like to help independiently with the project as much as I can...

Wouldn't it be good, to have some kind of brainstorming about what kind of product will can have?

A 15" display is a bit huge IMHO. I started with a 10" 800x600 display. But with teh current Efika design the entire device would become to thick and would consume too much energy anyway.
I guess you need some serious redesign (integration of a gfx chip + LVDS logic, pwr logic (DC 2 atx & battery) and integration of a high speed usb) to do a laptop.
Unfortunately this is not trivial.
When done that job, then you could build really great mini laptops (which would be also quite cheap)

@ Genesi
Hi Folks, who wants to design and build a laptop out of an EFIKA?

I think everyone dreams 'bout such a thing.
But, how to fit a gfx card along with Efika into a laptop case?

Oh I dunno about all the problems, I would think that with some creative cable construction that the HDD and riser card issues could be fairly easily resoved. At that point, it would be a matter of connections, and extensions to connections. With that said, I would rather see a step beyond a laptop--a palmtop. A nice 8" to 10" system would fit the bill, and (imho) help slide that 128M limit to a consumer.

Hmmm...a wireless MOS tablet..would need a touch driver tho' :D

JKD, there's one in Poseidon :D

Quote:
Yeah I agree Targhan (long time no type! ;), maybe look at a mini-laptop for Developing countries instead of palmtop- I know there's some initiatives to encourage this sort of product going at the moment.


[ Edited by Ants on 2007/3/28 12:09 ]

I think my idea of a MorphPAD was cool idea rather like psp or gp2x but better in ways

say 6 inch tft slim 80gb hardrive or a small flashdrive and maybe 2x 400mhz ppc or better
sdslot and wifi
charge it and attach through usb to pc
detatchable thumbstick and usb and even tvout!
like mobilty radeon or whatever

all about the size of slim cd-rw

[ Edited by amber-inc on 2007/3/28 11:58 ]

bbrv, you forgot one step ... :)

a "how feels morphos on efika" video (a small handy file is not enough)

boot morphos ... move, start, run some powerfull apps

so bbrv, get permission from morphos devs :)

I have one efika and i like the idea to buy a portable solution with a different board design too.

But new board design is a step, that comes after your current "creative contest" in this thread based on current efika board.

morphos is the key

Quote:

yes bbrv, give us some videos like that. I believe ppl are not interested in linux on efika, give us videos like that.

Bootup, playing audio streams (aminet radio), divx/dvd playback, downloading files... come on, give us, don't keep those things just for you

800 x 600 is not enough for comfortable MorphOS use. The best would be 12" display with smaller pixels (like for example in Sony Vaio) giving 1024x768. In current Efika design the highest element is not the AGP riser but the Eth + 2 USB connector, it makes the "bottom laptop part" at least 4.5 cm thick (of course hypothetical removing of this connector does not help much, as the riser is only 1.5 mm lower). Then I agree integrated gfx is a must for laptop construction, also laptop targetted Efika may have PCI socket removed, or 90 degree angle PCI slot should be mounted on the edge (but to be honest, I've never seen such a PCI socket).

Note also that typical LCD panels, we can buy in a shop, are not designed for transport and mechanical shocks. Some of you may remeber my "nuclear suitcase" Pegasos 2 case design, it was made portable with 17" LCD panel (just Samsung Syncmaster 710N) inside. Unfortunately the panel died after two years of usage. I still use the suitcase, but have to connect an external display at every place I want to use the Peg.

im sure you could attach wired pci riser and lay the gfx flat next to the efika?

the thing im having monitor plugs etc ,,maybe you could use on of them in artevion 7" screen etc dvd player or portable

Quote:

Talking to myself again - saw a show on CeBit last night- there are mini-laptops- but they cost a lot more than a normal laptop of same specs- so obviously going for top-end market. So hole on market I would say- especially as Mos is suited to a resource-constrained machine. And I agree about built in GFX card to reduce cost!

And also Dell are producing US $300 computers for China, which is still quite expensive- IMO there'd be a huge market for cheaper machines, that can still do basic functions- web, email, mps3 etc.

Keep track of the latest and greatest:

http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=7484

The project is underway. MorphOS would work on this EFIKA too.

R&B

Oh, I agree. Most importantly, the market gap is not only lost on any budget minded tablet style system--but the current offerings in that market is more, erm, 'slim' than the laptop market. As far as I can tell, there is very little in the way of an affordable tablet at all. Thus, when it comes to EFIKA, it almost doesn't matter if the discussed OS is MorphOS or Linux in this case.

Also, imagine the possibility of a pink, purse-sized, system marketed specifically to the ladies as a nice affordable computer that could be attatched to a docking station once returning from a business trip. Nintendo alone has made a huge increase in their portable game-system sales by catering a few games and a console design to be attractive to females.

I suppose it's time to head on over to www.powerdeveloper.org to throw my two cents in there too

Mind you: It's possible that there is no good market for this cheap little laptop.
At least in my country, desktop computer sales are going down, whilst portable computer sales raise. That's because people are replacing desktops with laptops, but only for space and aesthetics considerations (and because they have become affordable, not like years ago).
So, people, for sure, want THE SAME power from a laptop than from their desktop. That rules out the idea of a market for a freescale 5200 based laptop. At least for develped countries, which are the places to target if you want to do business.
This analysis would be invalidated, of course, if somehow the product is very cheap, and marketed ina way that people don't feel that it's a computer susbstitute. But then, if it's not a computer, it's a PDA. But PDA's lost market because mobile phone's now have all their functions, and also have mobile phone abilities.
Indeed, marketing is VERY important when you have a DIFFERENT product, and want it to fit inside some recognised category.

my dreams are

- sell without hdd
- easy way to change hdd (example: old ibm thinkpad)

nevertheless

at the moment this project has no face

this thread is in a public morphos forum, and something is missing ...

morphos on efika for publics

don't worry

http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/9823/developmentfz9.jpg

:)

@Andi

Haha.. so true