8/S Replica

Hmm. I get $5 per board, and that's assuming you can get quantity 100 of each of the module types! For a single replica, you'd pay more per board. I didn't get prices around $2 until quantities closer to 250 per design. Unless you know some place a lot cheaper than I do. From: "David Griffith": That part's fairly easy. As I mentioned, I've got a DEC style backplane already drawn for a variation on the 8/S. All that's really required is to define a new package and "change package" on all the components. One issue that comes up with the DEC backplanes is that all the connectors are right next to each other, leading to pretty dense wiring on the backplane. Most DEC backplanes I've tried to route as PCB's take at least 4 layers. They're also really big boards -- typically 12"x16" or more. Which means they're a few hundred dollars each in small quantities. If these are half-size (or less), maybe they'd drop back into the size range where the inexpensive fabs will do them. (Most of those seem to stop at 10"x12" or so.) We *do* all understand that an 8/S replica is a multi-thousand dollar proposition, right? If the boards could be done for $5 each, and the connector is another $0.50, and the components another $2 per board, then we are looking at about $7.50*400=$3000 already, and we haven't got a backplane or a front panel, each of which is probably a few hundred dollars. Another hundred for the power supply, and gotta buy a pretty box. Even with prototype board pricing and cheap interconnect I never came up with cost estimates below about $3000 for a whole system (which is partly why I never tried to build any of it). Quantity discounts would make a big difference, but even so I don't see it getting below the $2000 mark. It'd be great to be proved wrong :-). Vince