Re: If you could design a $300 homecomputer today, what would you choose?

[Ralf Quint <Ralf_Quint@hot_mail.com>]

On Thu, 12 Jul 2001 22:09:21 +0200, "T.J.T van Kooten"
<thomas@-nospam-worldonline.nl> wrote:

>For the sake of argument let's suppose you could design a next generation
>$300 homecomputer. The goal is to make a userfriendly machine for general
>use and for hobbyists. How would such a system look?
>
>CPU? (P.S Intel and AMD are out, far too expensive and powerhungry for this
>type of thing, you should be looking at the $20-35 level)
Well, in quantities, you might get pretty close for low end
Celerons....
>As OS? (Linux is a dead giveaway, but there also other OS's out there)
FreeDOS?? It's getting closer to be usable everyday.... 
Linux for a home user, no way, not in this decade AFAIAC... ;-)))
>Build in programming language? (please choose anything but Basic!)
What's wrong with BASIC? It's easy to be "build in", as it is an
interpreter and there are a lot of BASIC variations out there that
would stand any comparison for ease of use and performance....
Or you you suggest something more academic like Smalltalk, Lisp or
Java???
>Amount of memory? (RAM and ROM)
Not as much a question of cost (128MB SDRAM is less than $10 these
days), as of a combination of the above specs...
>Graphic and Sound?
VGA style graphics with 4MB RAM and at least 800x600, 16bit colors is
not a problem these days either..
And SB compatible sound probably not...
>Network capabilities? (internet capable)
an onboard solution with a Realtek chip and TP 10/100 RJ-45
connector...
>Plug in capabilities (remember you're making it as cheap as possible so
>modems, CD-Roms, HD's are all extras)
>Video (TV? or Monitor?)
Well, a monitor is probably the most expensive part. As for the
possible graphics capabilities, a TV (if it's not a fancy digital HDTV
one) is far below the capablities of the graphics chips...
>The real costs should below $200 or even below the $150 level. You may
>presume that a million units would be manufactured so take volume discounts
>for components into account
If you buy a million pieces of ANY component, you get FAR below the
usual retail prices. a quick look on pricewatch reveals
CPU: AMD Duron 700Mhz 	$24 (Celeron 700MHz $42, VIA Cyrix 700 $37)
Memory: 128MB PC133 	$9
Mobo: Intel 810 	$38 (build-in video!, USB, keyboard,...) 
case w/ p/s		$25 (ATX desktop)

Ok, that is a pretty mix, bu assuming large quantities as you
mentioned, this is less than $100 for the major parts. Add a few $10
for network and sound and smaller stuff, no problem...

>
>Let's see what sort of systems people come up with.
>
Ok, just a rough sketch, but it should give you an idea.
The problem is to finance this and to get the software for it (BeOS
might be nice, but....)
And these days, you will have a hard time selling something that is
not Playstation or PC compatible...
And than you are up against M$ with their XBox or whatever it is
called these days......

just my 2c,

Ralf