And how much extra would it cost to get a Mediatek SOC on a Pi for example? Having said that, what about an X86 SOC?
Almost certainly more than you probably expect.
You've got to consider:
- Board redesign (the SoC isn't socketed. Even if it were, a different SoC means different features, requirements, and pinout. Plus potentially different physical size, different supporting components, etc. (Aside: have you ever tried putting an AMD CPU into an Intel socket?)
- (Re)certification by the FCC and local equivalents.
- Software changes - including but not limited to new drivers and another set of OS images to build and support.
- Documentation changes
- Part costs. Is it possible ot use an x86 SoC and keep to the $35 (plus shipping and taxes) price point?
- Power requirement. You can run a Pi 5 and peripherals on 27W. Last I looked most x86 CPUs needed more than that just for themselves.
- And my personal favourite: not everyone wants x86 (and windows - Windows is the usual reason for asking for x86).
Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:30 am