[time-nuts] Parts Selection

[Chris Albertson]

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 1:57 PM, John Miles <jmiles at pop.net> wrote:
>  Life is too short to turn your basement into a
> one-person Chinese sweatshop.  Meanwhile, the value offered by preassembled
> eval/development/training boards can be considerable.

Even in "Chinese sweatshops" where people work cheap they do not hand
solder 100-pin chips.

I too have been impressed by existing FPGA development boards.  Prices
have fallen dramatically and there is the advantage that that do not
have to be designed and no one has to organize a group buy.  Of course
more hardware than just the board is required but that is where the
effort should go, into specialized things you can't buy as a
commodity.

The bottleneck will be software (or firmware if you care to make the
distinction).  The best way to address that is to get as much hardware
as you can fielded. If you limit hardware to only those willing to
hand solder under a microscope then not so many units will be fielded
and you will have fewer potential software contributors.    This
effect may even be non-linear because maybe those who can write
software are disproportionately unwilling to solder and vice versa.


-- 
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Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California