Hello9999901

This would be a very interesting future. I can imagine Gemma 5 Mini running locally on hardware, or a hard-coded "AI core" like an ALU or media processor that supports particular encoding mechanisms like H.264, AV1, etc.

Other than the obvious costs (but Taalas seems to be bringing back the structured ASIC era so costs shouldn't be that low [1]), I'm curious why this isn't getting much attention from larger companies. Of course, this wouldn't be useful for training models but as the models further improve, I can totally see this inside fully local + ultrafast + ultra efficient processors.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_ASIC_platform

Thank you for the mention! Didn't expect to see myself here haha - Byran

The price difference could be explained by LCSC purchasing in bulk directly from TI or similar and selling them at lower margins because their volumes are larger. I've seen "clone" chips sold at LCSC, but they're listed under a different brand (I can't recall one off memory unfortunately).

Hey HN, this past summer I went to NextPCB's factory and toured the facility. I asked questions from a variety of creators to factory workers at random.

Thank you so so much!! I’m shocked and incredibly grateful. HN <3

Yup, all the software except the blobs for the SoC, display FW, and trackpad FW (since it's COTS) are open source! If I wanted to have those open-source, the entire machine would take a huge performance hit. I think of striking a balance.

The entire linux install is OSS, the keyboard is in ZMK, and the EC firmware is written in Arduino.

I've met amazing people throughout my journey thus far, but no. I have no background in engineering, but my parents have always been supportive. I started falling in love with it in 9th grade with keyboards + ZMK!

Thank you redbell! It truly means a lot. I'm incredibly grateful of the reception and the support from everyone. HN <3

I have the R&D BOM in a link below [1]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17arbJvPqW6koqEJwAzne...

Thanks.

Thank you!

Woah! That would be amazing! I sent you an email just now. Thank you so much for this opportunity!!

Thank you so much for your kind words!

Hey Nirav, super super honored that you saw this! I've always looked up to you guys for inspiration and guidance. Thank you for the offer! Although I probably won't be mass-producing open-source laptops like you (i have a framework 16!), I would love to meet you. Would that be possible?

Oh my god! Jeff — huge fan and subscriber!! Thank you for your words of encouragement :). Your videos have been a huge source of inspiration for me.

Thank you so much for the heartfelt advice! I'll keep that close to heart :)

Thank you! Yup, Raspberry Pi's great an all, but the RK3588's performance is king (and RPi would've also saved me many nights of head-banging at the software).

I played Minecraft (epic gaming) with friends for a few hours, no problem! The massive heat capacity of the copper + heatpipe + active fan is good enough.

Thank you!

Haha I wish, but no. Just surname coincidence.

That's a sick idea too! Wouldn't be too hard. I'll keep that in mind never thought of it before even though I've used my fair share.

Thank you so, so much! You phrased it so well. The moments of desperation really hit you hard. I have uncountably many loose ends, but oh well, bad engineering :(. Honored that HN thinks I'm a hacker :)

Thank you!! After schooling is done :)

Thank you so much! I'm currently working for Keychron!

Thank you so much! For certain; goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble and knowledge without goodness is dangerous.

It was a truly difficult undertaking! I was ready to quit at so many moments, but I always think about the final mission of sharing this little piece of knowledge with the world. :)

Thanks! Have you taken a look at the Khadas Mind [1]? Super similar to what you're talking about with the handheld PC.

[1]: https://www.khadas.com/product-page/mind

I truly appreciate your encouragement. I can only imagine how successful you are! Thank you!

Thank you so much! The story behind the laptop was quite interesting — my friends and I were going to an athletics event far away, and he brought up the idea that I should make a laptop for my senior project as a joke (our school offers 1 free class for a "project", graciously funded by the school). I said "hell yeah." That's pretty much how this came to be, college didn't play much of a role imho. And best of luck studying physics!

Thank you so much — yes, that was the hardest part of this entire project! I spent 2 months getting eDP working (second PCB thankfully).

I had the honor of learning high speed signaling from the best. I met some super cool people from Silicon Valley and research universities (from past work, like the MUREX Ethernet Switch). The ZMK Firmware community too!

Hanging around 5 grand. Unfortunately the R&D process was rough! The R&D BOM is linked below, feel free to take a look. If you were to build it, I'd estimate it costing around 1500 dollars (or less).