Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 21:50:52 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: patl@phoenix.volant.org Cc: tlambert@primenet.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: USB drivers Message-ID: <199901302150.OAA20323@usr04.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <ML-3.3.917676219.1406.patl@asimov> from "patl@phoenix.volant.org" at Jan 29, 99 10:03:39 pm
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> > So even if you bought a bare motherboard, you'd end up with all
> > this useless, expensive crap nailed to it.
>
> Somehow I suspect that it's still cheaper than USB or FireWire versions.
> After all, IDE is basicly still alive because it's cheaper than SCSI.
No, IDE is cheaper than SCSI because of volume.
The point isn't that USB peripherals aren't more expensive. The
point is that I don't *need* all of them, so if I dike out the
stuff I don't need, and don't pay to put it back as a USB device,
then my overall cost drops.
For example, would you buy a PC with a floppy drive today, given
a choice? The standard install media is CDROM, not floppy. You
have to actually call/send for floppies if you don't want CDROM.
So... why are you paying for a floppy controller?
Or would you buy a brand new machine with 4 ISA slots you're never
going to use? Any ISA slots at all? Then why pay for the interface
silicon, the support circuitry, the PC board realestate, the BIOS
code, and the card edge connectors?
[ ... at this point, someone with a very old card and no intention
to buy a new system instead of a motherboard for a piecemeal
upgrade of their hardware jumps in to defend ISA ... ]
> > http://wearables.stanford.edu/
>
> Yep, this falls into the class of machines where USB and/or FireWire
> would be an excellent choice. But then, this is also the sort of
> application where you're paying a significant bonus for small size
> and reduced parts count.
Oh yeah, less parts, that's something to charge for. The failure
rates on production runs must be *astronomical* with only 14 things
to suface mount to the board.
Just think if there were only two things to hook to the board,
the second of which was a USB port for a hub-powered computer.
The thing could never work, with only two things to go wrong,
instead of 1500.
;-).
> But your original posting sounded like you were proposing a general-
> purpose desktop or notebook machine which only offered power, USB, and
> FireWire as external connectors. For that you'd need to be much closer
> to price/performance parity with more traditional designs.
Well, I think the trend is USB keyboards and mice.
You might have an argument with video, but the Panasonic USB
monitors are very cheap. The argument you would have would be
about graphics bandwidth (and that goes away with FireWire,
which is much fater than PCI).
So at best, that *is* a general purpose desktop (or notebook core),
and at worst, you've got a nce headless server.
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.
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