EOMA-68 finally ?

selsinork wrote:

 

Interesting times for SBC's indeed..  Although I'm not really sure that things like Improv or Wandboard where you have two boards really qualify as Single Board Computers.

Haha, good point.  Maybe the phrase Modular Board Computers should be coined for these multi-board assembles?  (The 'M' could also refer to "multi".)  "Modular" certainly reflects the intent behind EOMA-68 and EDM.

What's missing in all these cases though are third-party baseboards or motherboards.  There's still no general buy-in for these modular concepts by third parties.  When the baseboards are available only from the same manufacturer as the CPU module, that creates strong lock-in.

Morgaine.

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

What's missing in all these cases though are third-party baseboards or motherboards.  There's still no general buy-in for these modular concepts by third parties.  When the baseboards are available only from the same manufacturer as the CPU module, that creates strong lock-in.

 

Morgaine.

the source code in KiCAD CAD/CAM format for various EOMA68 hardware PCB projects is available publicly under the GPL software license if you look for it on the rhombus-tech.net web site.  unfortunately there was no take-up (no assistance offered by open hardware engineers) when those projects were begun, as it takes quite a lot of committment and no such committment was given.

so i was forced, in order to complete the project, to begin using proprietary CAD/CAM tools and to pay professional engineering teams quite large sums of money to get the boards completed.

obviously, i want that investment of funds back.

you have to bear in mind that i am primarily a software libre advocate (with an incredibly ambitious goal).  it is going to be necessary to kick-start this project with a number of different CPU Cards and different base units before people start to "Get It (tm)".  once there are several examples (on each side of the EOMA68 interface) to play with, people will stop thinking of this as a) vapourware b) yet another SBC project c) will find the KiCAD examples that i began 3 years ago, and will consider completing them or creating their own.

if that doesn't happen as quickly as i would like it to, i will (once the project is financially self-sustaining and the personal funds invested have been recouped) release a number of products as full GPL'd Open Hardware PCB designs.

so i foresee a future in which there will be plenty of open hardware third party EOMA68 designs out there.  in fact, there is one third party team who has stuck with the project throughout: they are creating a hand-held games console.  http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/games_console/

does that help address the point that you raise?

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

What's missing in all these cases though are third-party baseboards or motherboards.  There's still no general buy-in for these modular concepts by third parties.  When the baseboards are available only from the same manufacturer as the CPU module, that creates strong lock-in.

 

Morgaine.

the source code in KiCAD CAD/CAM format for various EOMA68 hardware PCB projects is available publicly under the GPL software license if you look for it on the rhombus-tech.net web site.  unfortunately there was no take-up (no assistance offered by open hardware engineers) when those projects were begun, as it takes quite a lot of committment and no such committment was given.

so i was forced, in order to complete the project, to begin using proprietary CAD/CAM tools and to pay professional engineering teams quite large sums of money to get the boards completed.

obviously, i want that investment of funds back.

you have to bear in mind that i am primarily a software libre advocate (with an incredibly ambitious goal).  it is going to be necessary to kick-start this project with a number of different CPU Cards and different base units before people start to "Get It (tm)".  once there are several examples (on each side of the EOMA68 interface) to play with, people will stop thinking of this as a) vapourware b) yet another SBC project c) will find the KiCAD examples that i began 3 years ago, and will consider completing them or creating their own.

if that doesn't happen as quickly as i would like it to, i will (once the project is financially self-sustaining and the personal funds invested have been recouped) release a number of products as full GPL'd Open Hardware PCB designs.

so i foresee a future in which there will be plenty of open hardware third party EOMA68 designs out there.  in fact, there is one third party team who has stuck with the project throughout: they are creating a hand-held games console.  http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/games_console/

does that help address the point that you raise?