[fedora-arm] 1ghz ARM Laptop (12in 1280x800 LCD)

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

folks, hi,

i'm contacting people on all of the ARM linux distribution lists to
find out if anyone is interested in bringing about the creation of a
decent, useful and useable ARM-based Laptop.  i've been researching
CPUs and how to go about this with a minimum of risk and cost,
learning from the experiences of the openpandora for example.  all of
the enquiries that i've made, for about a year, all point towards a
minimum spec of at least a 1ghz CPU, 1gb of RAM and a 12in screen
(below those specs is too little, and above them is too costly).  does
such a machine exist?  in one word: no.  there are plenty of machines
with 1024x600 screens (the toshiba AC100, the Genesi-USA Ekiga and the
AlwaysInnovating Touchbook) - i wish them every success in their niche
markets that are catered for by 1024x600 screens.

for everyone else, who wants to see full documents and full web pages
*without* having to press page-up, page-down, there literally is not a
single ARM-based (or MIPS-based) product in existence, commercially
available, anywhere in the world, despite a lot of talk from ARM, and
also from the major ARM licensees, and despite the production cost of
ARM-based and MIPS-based laptops being lower than that of an
equivalent intel-based system.

so the question i have, for the people on this list is: given that
nobody else is taking any initiative, would _you_ like to be part of a
project that takes the initiative to create a low-cost, high-end
ARM-based laptop?  like the OpenPandora, except... done with far less
risk and a lot less cost.  one absolute key part in reducing risk and
cost is to utilise existing casework from a no-brand OEM laptop.  all
that's then required is to create the motherboard to fit.  more info
here:

http://lkcl.net/laptop.html

a rough guide i've received from a chinese embedded systems designer
is that a design using a Samsung S5PV210 will be about $USD 10,000,
and a design using a TI DM3730 or DM3725 will be about $20,000 (TI's
CPUs are a bit more complex, and the DM37xx series is newer than
Samsung's S5 range)... but that's *it*.  that's all it costs, to
create the motherboard for fitting into an existing 12in laptop
chassis.  excluding a DVD or Hard Drive, the BOM (Bill of Materials)
will come to somewhere around $150, which translates loosely into $240
to $300 after tax, customs, shipping etc. etc.

i'm still investigating ways to get that price down even further, and
i'm really really interested to hear from people who may know of other
CPUs.  i've just heard today about the ZMS-08 for example, and
creativelabs have a SoM (system-on-module) which sounds like a perfect
fit: the only bug-bear being the proprietary libraries and
creativelab's fear over being swamped by developer wannabes asking for
help on how to program one of the most complex Cell Processor Units in
existence outside of IBM's and other obscure labs.  the proprietary
libraries aren't so much the problem as the lack of documentation on
the Cell Processor.

so - please do discuss amongst yourselves, or feel free to contact me
directly.  i'm maintaining a list of links to all the other forums
this is going out on, at the bottom of http://lkcl.net/laptop.html -
if you would like to recommend an alternative CPU please do review
and/or edit http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Hardware/Processors
first (either the page itself or the discussion page).

l.