GPD MicroPC


That thing would either need a lot more thickness or magic to fit anything close to that number of ports...It would be a cool concept, but the MicroPC is probably about as close as he's going to get for now.
 
levi said:
I suspect it'd need to have seriously low keyboard travel to fit all of those ports on the side.
Click to expand...
In his post he doesn't indicate that he has a keyboard switch technology in mind, so add whatever keyboard tech you imagine to the thickness you see.

If you reduce the thickness of the keycap by 1/2, you'd get ca. 2mm for key-travel -- plenty for a bubble-dome clicky switch. Or one could try these very-low profile mechanical keys, but suffer an added ~5-8mm to the thickness.

Also the 230mm wide keyboard is /just/ in that netbook zone where touch typing starts to become feasible. I'd prefer 250mm but that would make it too big for some applications.

If I had my druthers, the keyboard itself would be part of a screw-on plate. A handful of keyboard types would be offered, each with identical connector, but the controller would allow for alternate layouts. To accomodate the differing keyswitch heights, just make the monitor hinge swappable with one designed for the higher keyboard, or make one that is adjustable vertically. A clip or screw-on shroud around the display cut to correct depth would then form the seal between display edge and device body.

[EDIT]We could get even wilder with that! The screw/latch-on keyboard idea would allow for extra-wide keyboards that extend up to a couple of cm over the sides of the device. The extrawide wouldn't obstruct connectors - probably - and the matching snap/screw-on shroud for the lid could have extended width and thus cover the keyboard with lid closed!

[doublepost=1549061665,1549061442][/doublepost]
NovemberJoy said:
That thing would either need a lot more thickness or magic to fit anything close to that number of ports...It would be a cool concept, but the MicroPC is probably about as close as he's going to get for now.
Click to expand...

It really depends on what ports look on the inside. I can imagine the VGA port, for e.g., to have essentially no depth within the case behind the actual connector; just enough to affix a metal mounting plate. He claims to have 3D sketches where parts fit, but I didn't see a link to them.

There are other interesting ideas there though - very interesting ones.
* The keyboard layout is pretty darn good for how few keys are available
* 2x External PCI x4 lanes
* Low level SATA interface for diagnosing SATA drives
* Acts as a keyboard, usb storage, and monitor for the device you're administering


And these aren't just 'neat ideas'. These are serious value propositions for techs and administrators - and they can justify a serious price tag for business and institutional customers.
 
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almost completely standard Qwery?!! take my money!

(i can live with back-tick above 1)
 
ible said:
almost completely standard Qwery?!! take my money!

(i can live with back-tick above 1)
Click to expand...

Well yeah ible, but the more I think of it, the more I think this device is straddling two different physical use-cases, and suffering as a result.

There's the server-admin and tech role where compact bag-ability is very helpful but pocketeability is not so important. The typical typing surface is a desk somewhere. For this, his proposed 230mm keyboard looks to me too cramped for longer text-entry sessions - even shell use - fairly slow and/or error prone.

Make the keyboards swappable, and you can offer an extended one with, say 250mm and 96% of the pitch (right word?) of a regular keyboard.
 
klapse said:
I can imagine the VGA port, for e.g., to have essentially no depth within the case behind the actual connector; just enough to affix a metal mounting plate. He claims to have 3D sketches where parts fit, but I didn't see a link to them.
Click to expand...
In my experince, most kinds of D-sub sockets have about the same behind the plate as in front of it. They usually have sheared tubes cut at an angle so that you can drop wires in easily and get at them to solder them in place, although maybe there's newer styles these days more compatible with pick and place machines, but even then I can only really imagine them making stepped leads that lead down to a level PCB that will need to fan out to at least the height of the socket unless they do something really weird. They've still got to fit those 15 pads somewhere.

Still, the thing that looked closest to the keyboard to me was that SD slot. Those tend to only have a small bump where the leads come out, and that's on the bottom anyway. But it's still a hard metal cage stuck inside the typical throw of a tablet keyboard I think.
 
the smd ones have shrunken quite a bit
D-Shell_15.jpg


but to use it as in and output you would need to lug a gender changer around too and then you might as well just use a usb cable for it
 
klapse said:
I think this guy's ideas are /so/ much better. Even if not all achievable.
4aqrf-1sgstwwffhx-n4wr0p7ws.jpeg

https://habr.com/en/post/437912/
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been trying to find out what the heck is the deal with them putting power buttons only on the keyboard face of any sort of clamshell device. Any of these devices could be happily used as desktop replacements with everything plugged in and the screen closed, except for the fact that the power button requires you to open it, then close it again after it boots up. It mystifies me. It makes more sense that the power button could just be seated on the side like this image. I mean, this number of ports is a little bit excessive but it illustrates a good point.
 
Hellfleck said:
the smd ones have shrunken quite a bit but to use it as in and output you would need to lug a gender changer around too and then you might as well just use a usb cable for it
Click to expand...

Wow I've never seen or never noticed a smd vga connector. In my mind I was picturing the typical through hole parts. I don't think you would need the gender changers though. I had to image search to confirm but vga is typically female on both devices with a male to male cable.

Does anyone have an example of a device that uses the same vga port for input and output? I'd think it's possible but I can't think of anything that is able to do it.
 
XavierBlak said:
Wow I've never seen or never noticed a smd vga connector. In my mind I was picturing the typical through hole parts. I don't think you would need the gender changers though. I had to image search to confirm but vga is typically female on both devices with a male to male cable.

Does anyone have an example of a device that uses the same vga port for input and output? I'd think it's possible but I can't think of anything that is able to do it.
Click to expand...

There's some amazing things you can do with SMD and BGA, but I don't trust the strength of them for connectors without some heavy duty reinforcement. Never seen an SMD Vga port, though.
 
VGA monitors advertise their DHCP capabilities over the 15-pin reverse ferret; I'm not sure which pins it uses, but other than that vga connectors can be considered as outputs only. Monitors, if they have VGA sockets rather than a permanently plumbed in video line, also have female ports - the leads are generally male to male. You can get male to female cables to be used as a line extension, but VGA leads don't work well over long distances in my experience, and these days you're better off ordering the right length lead online unless you're dealing with an old monitor with plumbed in leads.

RS-232 serial ports in a DE-9 enclosure (like the GPD Micro has) generally have TX and RX lines so they handle both in and out symmetrically in the one plug/socket combo.
 
Is there any news of Linux support out of the box for the GPD Micro PC?
 
Grench said:
Is there any news of Linux support out of the box for the GPD Micro PC?
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They've hired people to get Ubuntu MATE 18.10 working on it. Other than that, support looks grim, with most distros not working well or at all out of the box.
 
Sounds like he's bashing his head against some of the same issues that our kernel team has already grappled with... maybe he should try letux kernel ;-)

-Neelix
 
crazyhorse said:
Looks like its being worked on
Click to expand...
In as much as I understand nomodeset, it stops the kernel switching (on my machines at least) from the VGA grub menu resolution to the native resolution, which it currently does half-way through boot, a little like when his screen rotated during boot there. When you start X apparently it will still try to apply the native resolution, so if you're depending on tty based rotation you may need to stop that as well.

I'm surprised that the BIOS resolution is so high. When rotated, to my eye it looks basically native. On all of my old non-UEFI based machines, BIOS resoltion is VGA so 640x480, so decidely funky and old school before modesetting makes it all as smooth as a baby's rear end.

If the framebuffer is available in that tty interface then that might be enough for me, to be honest. I can multitask using tmux, and if I can view my video downloads on the move, and maybe play a little emulation under mednafen (which I suspect will work fine under framebuffer) then that's maybe enough. I'd be without graphical web although maybe netsurf has a framebuffer interface, I dunno, but everything else should be enough to keep me entertained on slow train and bus journeys.
 
vcoleiro1 said:
GPD asked Canonical to officially port Ubuntu Mate onto the MicroPC. Canonical has agreed to this and has put Martin Wimpress on the job two weeks ago.

This is Martin Wimpress -> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MartinWimpress

Click to expand...
So - the lingering questions of when? and, Is it going to be in the mainline kernel or is this a one and done - will only ever work with Mate?

I have given up ordering or pre-ordering machines from companies that promise Linux support then do nothing - counting on the community to do it all for them.
 
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