alt Hacker NewsCurrently $1,299.00 for the Ultra 7 and $1,449.00 for the Ultra 9. I won't say it isn't a fair price, but it is a really hard one.
It would be perhaps more interesting to start making ARM or maybe even RISC-V motherboard replacements for some of these beloved chassis.
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throwaway270925 • today at 11:38 AM
Agreed. I would love just a basic ports carrier board with a compute module slot for any Raspberry Pi CM for my old and ancient thinkpads.
varispeed • today at 2:17 PM
This is a small shop. Given complexity I'd say the price is a steal. You certainly couldn't make it at that price in the West. Probably 2-10 times more expensive.
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znpy • today at 7:49 AM
There is a risc-v motherboard for the famrwork 13 but different reviewers agree that is overall a slow cpu, nit really competitive. Probably in a few (cpu) generations…
It's not the type of CPU that is driving up the cost. It's a niche hobby product which will sell O(tens-hundreds) units worldwide. The issue with these frankenpads is the brokenness of bios/ec, tb ports, thermals, fan noise, stability, etc.