Quote:
Originally Posted by pandy71
Real cost of fast HW (maybe even with MC68k DMA-like coded on X-MOS for example) USB is around 5 - 10E - but i understand there is cost of software development (driver + app + testing) and profit - however surely not 50E...
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I just picked that number from the air. Yes, parts would be cheap but development not. Think of the cost of the existing custom USB solutions - you'd need similar levels of development with a similar raw materials cost so it's not too far a stretch to think that adding USB to the board would add a cost not far off that of the stand-alone card.
As for the cost of the Raspberry Pi, there are a couple of reasons for this: First is the volume of Raspberry Pis produced which is already around 50,000 times higher than the number of boards Jens will sell. That's a different galaxy when it comes to economies of scale, buying parts etc. Second, the RPi is a not-for-profit venture so no profit is included in the price. This also means the RPi Foundation can avoid taxes and so on which reduces the cost even further. And third, it's using a SoC design that already includes pretty much all the interfacing electronics that are needed "for free", which is certainly not the case for the Amiga motherboard.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see USB etc. on this new board too, but it doesn't make sense to include all the things that anyone wants when it will increase the price for everyone. I'd much rather pay €350 for a board and modules that does what I want it to do than €450 for an all-in-one board that does a lot of stuff that I don't want.