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Topics - specing

#2
Wanted Features and Options / Crazy ideas
February 24, 2015, 03:34:45 PM
If LiFePo4 chemistry is chosen for the external battery pack (or some other with high discharge),
there should be a way to start your car with it in emergencies.

A 3-cell 100Wh LiFePo4 battery pack with 30C discharge (max) provides
100 / 3 cells / 3.6V nominal  * 30 times-discharge provides 277 amperes of
current or 3000 watts at 3*3.6 = 10.8 V

Problem: how to block current from coming from the lead-acid battery and/or the alternator from
charging the battery (One does not simply charge li-ion)? High-power low-drop diodes?
#3
As per discussion in IRC:

- RGB LED with dimming and colour adjustment (vi a EC/OS), possibly even two in stereo?
- ability to turn it on/off (and possibly adjust intensity/colour) when laptop is "off"
- colour/intensity adjustment based on time of day and/or ambient light sensor readings
- powerful enough that no-one will have to run it at 100% in normal and not totally crazy circumstances

anything else?
#4
via light sensor, possible locations:
    - indicator board (issues? LEDs might interfere)
    - camera/mic/thinlight board on top of screen
    - near the front of base unit?
    - somewhere else?

via camera? (Probably a no-go, but keeping it here for reference)
    - Take a picture and derive amount of light shining directly onto the screen.
    - the bad: requires a coprocessor that:
        - has the required hardware interface http://mipi.org/specifications/camera-interface
        - is fast enough to pass-through video (DMA?)
        - is fast enough to run some algo on the captured image.

Offloaded to EC or some other mcu that controls the backlight.
#5
Rev 1.4 (previous iterations discussed on IRC)

drawn in gEDA's schematics capture program (gschem), because well... why not?


This case is designed around the LG 12.85" 2560x1700 3:2 display:

Diagonal:      12.85 inches or 32.64 centimeters
width:         10.70 inches or 27.19 centimeters
height:         7.11 inches or 18.06 centimeters
vertical pixel density:   239.147400 per inch or 94.15 per cm
horizontal pixel density: 239.147400 per inch or 94.15 per cm

(note: there is an error in the data sheet filename listing it as 2560x1600 pixels)

... and the T60's keyboard, the size of which is still an unknown to me.

case width: 30 cm
case height: 24 cm


At its heart lies the AMD FP2+ APU socket supporting three generations, in order:
Trinity, Richland (last with open init code) and Kaveri.
TODO: does using a Bolton (iirc Kaveri generation) southbridge mean we
have to use non-open AGESA?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_chipsets#Fusion_controller_hubs_.28FCH.29


At the edges of the case there are five multi-purpose compartments of about
7 x 10.5 x 0.8 cm each. These compartments can accept either of the following:

1) a 2.5" 7mm height hard drive (or SSD)
2) a ~16 Wh battery (note: currently I have not found an exact fit battery yet, but two of
these would fit tightly: https://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=18559 )
3) some slots could accept an ExpressCard adaptor board (the case could have removable sides
where the front slots are)
4) user-made stuff connecting either via SATA, PCI-e single lane or USB (up to 3.0)


Above the keyboard is the eye-candy board, which communicates with the EC and APU
over i2c (maybe even SPI or UART or ...?). It features a microcontroller that can
be reprogrammed on the fly and can display information in user-defined fashion.
Depending on which LEDs and buttons are put on this board, users could swap the
meaning of LEDs, dim them or turn them off altogether.


At the front is the audio/compartment interface board, which *somehow* connects to
the motherboard and provides audio I/O, USB and perhaps even an SD card reader. My
infinite wisdom has decided that audio connectors are best placed in front, so that
the cabling doesen't cross the hands while typing. A lid open/close sensor is also
very likely to be placed here.


The power supply board is drawn as a seperate board, but it may be merged with
the mainboard. The idea was that the power board manages the case-specific battery
system (up to 5 internal cells for a total of 80 Wh) and provides a solid voltage
to the swappable mainboards and other functiions.


There are four mini PCI express slots planned, two for dual radios (e.g 2x wifi or
such -- 2 antenna systems in screen) and the other two for user logic, e.g.
a provided FPGA board for computation acceleration or PCI-e SSD or ...



The hinges may have a  "pop off" switch on the back side. By removing the whole
screen module one will be able to use the laptop base for typing in front of
a much larger monitor when at home or work. There may be difficulties with
all the cabling/signalling if the whole screen portion is removable.


Both the dual speakers and microphones are meant to have advanced
Linux/BSD/whatever :) surround, noise cancelling and marketing buzzwords.


An external battery pack that lifts the back of the laptop for better typing feel
is planned as pictured. It will fit around 100 Wh of extra battery power in
designed volume, bringing the max to 180 watt-hours.



Other connectors have not yet been positioned, but the following are wished by me
(counting in the front daughterboard):

at least 6 x USB
at least 1 x  PCI-express 8 lane (for connecting external GPUs and other fun stuff)
2 x SATA (eSATA?)
1 x custom? power connector and a breakout cable into 2 x SATA power (imho molex is too big)
1 x gigabit ethernet
1 x power jack (round 5.5mm / 2.5mm seem to be the most used for laptops)
2 x display port
1 x secure digital (SD) card reader
1 x VGA (maybe, ~ all business laptops have it)
1 x UART tx/rx/gnd for interfacing with external microcontrollers and the like (maybe even others)



Capabilities of the AMD Richland A10-6800K APU and most Bolton FCH's:
http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/chipsets/a-series
http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/Bolton_D2-D2H-D3-D4_Databook.pdf#search=A88X

PCI-e:
APU: up to DDR3-1866 dual channel RAM
APU: 2 x 8 lane 2.0 or 1 x 16 lane 3.0
APU: 2.0:  1 x 4 lane or 4 x 1 lane
FCH: 2.0:  1x4 or 2x2 or 1x2+2x1 or 4x1
FCH: up to 8 x 6 gbit SATA with RAID
FCH: up to 14 x USB 2.0
FCH: up to 4 x USB 3.0
FCH: infrared transceiver
FCH: SD flash controller
FCH: VGA controller (max 1920x1600 at 60 Hz)
... and much more