In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dave P wrote: > On Thu, 25 Nov 2004, Tarquin Mills wrote: > > > If it was a portable at reasonable price people would buy it, > > people would buy the Platinum card (Quanta may fund it if there is > > a business plan). I am looking into making a bid to the national > > lottery to afford the (portable) cases, other minority platform and > > small manufacturers could share costs. However once there is a case a > > QL will be needed to go in it. > > When you say portable do you mean a laptop or PDA or something complete > and self-contained, or a desktop that is self-contained, not made of > thousands of bits held together with string and shaped like the > International Space Station?
A true laptop, my MinisQ60 (which not as bad as the ISS) is stage one. > To develop a board for a laptop is an interesting proposition. It's about > the same as the challenge of developing a board for a PC, but with > additional power challenges. The QL uses such minimal power that unless we are using Coldfire this can be ignored. > If a QL-replacement board with SVGA output was made in a standard > form-factor and the same schematic was also laid out for a common > taiwanese laptop case, this could technically work. > > The likely route would be to buy a stack of itentical budget laptops, and > use the existing PSU/battery, HD, and CD/DVD mechanism, and just replace > the motherboard. This would be cheaper than designing/buying all those > items separately. This is an interesting idea. > Would people be willing to pay a $400-$600 premium for a laptop? That has > 1/10th the performance of if you'd left it alone and just installed QPC? Yes, if they were serious, while the laptop would be much faster than 1/10th, in fact it will be faster than QPC, while if it uses Coldfire that will bring it into the next league. Do not forget the sales on other platforms. -- Tarquin Mills ACCUS (Anglia Classic Computer Users Society) http://www.speccyverse.me.uk/comp/accus/ _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm