1) The final development PCBs (the engineering validation articles) are actually identical to the production PCBs. Your final EV revision becomes revision 0 in production; only the manufacturing method changes. So the prototype floor definitely has the ability to make production-quality PCBs.
2) The design change may or may not be complicated. Adding a port typically refers to a port already supported by the chipset; so you add a ribbon connector for it and change the layout only.
3) You generally wouldn't have full pick-and-place automation for making prototypes. There are manual tools (sort of semi-automated) for making a few PCBs. A large company is making prototype PCBs all the time. They know how to do it, and they don't stop manufacturing for it.
4) For the case, the easiest would be to rework an existing case (add a slot). Creating custom injection molds is kind of a big deal. Then again, if Fujitsu does that in house, maybe not that big. Don't know.
5) The expense would not involve a cash outlay, but it would definitely involve diverting engineering, manufacturing and sales resources to even communicate and deliver this whole thing, let alone make it. The engineers may have been pulled off something, or may have been waiting for work; business hasn't been that great for most manufacturers, if you haven't noticed. No, I don't know how Fujitsu accounts for this or why they made the decision to go ahead. I am not a manager at Fujitsu. I can tell you that most companies are very loathe to let prototypes and one-offs to leave their hands at all. So it's definitely impressive on Fujitsu's part that they would go to that length.
> Please fuck off if you don't know what you're talking about, for the sake of anyone that wants to ask a remotely relevant question on this braindead hellhole.
Uh, what? did I miss something?
1. A group of British construction workers in a Discovery Channel documentary loved to start fights in random bars until one day they accidentally started a fight in a bar frequented by members of a local boxing club.
They may have stuck the needed connector on a wire and used an NC mill to make an appropriate cutout from an existing housing part.
It is literally less than 1 hour to design and tape-out a inch-square pc board to accomodate a connector and cable termination. I am a little guy and have to wait a week and pay five bucks to have this manufactured. Fujitsu probably had this done the morning after a solution to the request was devised and approved.
As a customer, I think we bought ~1,000 units in the end. I've rarely seen that type of capability in my career, and it's too bad that the realities of the market have likely nixed it.