Some thoughts questions about my Nanonote and Ya Nanonote

[Sébastien Bourdeauducq]

On 04/09/2012 04:30 PM, Wolfgang Spraul wrote:
> otherwise we can improve
> Milkymist first, which makes more sense - see above - since Milkymist
> innovates in 2 areas where the NanoNote was weak: mechanical and SoC.

And here's a third area where it will innovate: user interfaces. It's 
weak in all current Qi/Milkymist products, and probably contributes to 
the drawerware effect.

As I mentioned on IRC, I'm thinking about something like the Reactable, 
but using near field RF technology similar to that of Wacom graphics 
tablets. This would make it possible to do a slim device instead of the 
bulky videoprojector/webcam setup of the Reactable, and embed some 
intelligence in the objects (and add buttons, gyros, LEDs, etc.)

After I'm done with the core of the NG (Migen based) arch (mostly 
getting the new memory controller to work and some dataflow synthesis 
support), I'll start seriously experimenting in this direction.

By the way, if you want to help and learn some FPGA design at the same 
time, you could port some of the existing cores (Ethernet, AC97, USB, 
GPIO, NOR flash write support) to Migen. It should be a tractable task 
for a FPGA beginner with intermediate/good computer programming 
experience, and a good way to jump into SoC design. Join #milkymist on 
Freenode and ask your questions...

Sébastien