Talk:Open Hardware

A sterling idea as the recent changes in the Linksys v5.0 hardware demonstrates the long-term dangers inherent in a reliance on hacked hardware.

In dollar terms it will probably be all but impossible to beat the Linksys on price but seeing as we'd be hardpressed to find a WRT54G in South Africa for under R 650.00 it may well be that a cost-effective solution is possible.

In the medium term I am currently looking at the Gumstix platform (http://www.gumstix.com) as a possible platform.

Their 'gumstix connex 200' platform retails for US$99 with the optional netCF expansion board adding a single RJ-45 connector and a Compact Flash slot for US$65. CFlash wifi cards retail for aroud US$60 which gives us a total price of US$224 or around R1456.00 for a bare bones node.

A longer term solution would almost certainly require a custom design if we wanted to get under R 1000.00.

Am currently researching pricing on the Intel XScale PXA255 chip as well as looking for alternatives. More info to follow!

ps. I hope no one minds me just jumping in and making myself comfortable. Please shout if my presence causes any discomfort!