Thor Lancelot Simon <tls@rek.tjls.com> writes:
> If you're going to make some of those funky UMI boards, I bet if you
> made PCI ones with 100Mb/sec Ethernet on them you could sell a bunch
> to other shark folks.  Lack of 100Mb Ethernet (and maybe lack of pciide,
> sigh) is the only thing really wrong with the Shark from my point of 
> view.

So, i briefly discussed this with one of the hardware guys here, and
based on ballpark guesses I think a board for the UMI is feasible with
not too much work.

FYI, what I'd personally want on it:

	* another serial port
	* HPNA (e.g. am79c978 PCI ethernet)

There seems to be strong desire for 100Mbit as well, and that could be
handled by an external PHY for the '978.  Alternetly, a 100Mbit NIC
could be used with an external HPNA PHY.

That way the box would be useful in lots of home applications (for
those of us who don't have too much cat5 running around our houses),
and as a modem dialup gateway box.  (The marginal cost for the parts
people are not personally likely to use will likely be dwarfed by the
other costs involved.)

So, how about this:

	* if you'd be interested in something like this, send me
	  e-mail and mention:

		* what you'd like on the board
		* how much you'd be willing to pay
		* how many you think you might want.

	* if you can do the hardware design or help verify the design,
	  definitely send me mail.  (from what I can tell, the real
	  question here is "do you have PCI design experience and
	  spare time.")

Obviously, before any real amount of money is sunk into something like
this, the proper function of the PCI and ISA UMIs should be
well-verified, since at least the PCI has, to the best of my
knowledge, never been comprehensively tested.

I think i'd be willing to coordinate the
fab/assembly/testing/distribution and distribute boards at
approximately cost if there are enough interested folks...


cgd
-- 
Chris Demetriou - cgd@netbsd.org - http://www.netbsd.org/People/Pages/cgd.html
Disclaimer: Not speaking for NetBSD, just expressing my own opinion.