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The goal of the EOMA (Embedded Open Modular Architecture) project is to introduce the idea of being ethically responsible about both the ecological and the financial resources required to design, manufacture, acquire and maintain our personal computing devices. The EOMA68 standard is a freely-accessible, royalty-free, unencumbered hardware standard formulated and tested over the last five years around the ultra-simple philosophy of "just plug it in: it will work".
With devices built following this standard, one can upgrade the CPU-card (consisting of CPU, RAM and some local storage) of a device while keeping the same housing (e.g. laptop). One can also use the CPU-card in different devices (e.g. unplug CPU-card from laptop, plug into desktop); or use a replaced/discarded CPU-card from a laptop for NAS storage or a micro-server. There are housings currently available for a laptop (can be 3D-printed in full, or in part to replace parts that break) and a micro-desktop; and there are plans for others like routers or tablets in the future.
There are multiple articles talking about this project and analyzing the hardware, for example from ThinkPenguin, CNXSoft or EngadgetNG. There is also a recent live-streamed video introducing the project.
(Score: 2, Informative) by lkcl on Tuesday August 02 2016, @07:20PM
As I posted on slashdot, the device while neat is under spec'ed for modern desktop usage. It has too little ram and too little storage space. It would be better suited as a alternative that is completely open to the raspberry pi and similar.
no it would not, and you're missing the point entirely of the exercise.
first point: let's reference the conversation - https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9462323&cid=52617167 [slashdot.org]
summary: to even remotely consider entering the over-saturated SBC market would be totally pointless. i have better things to do with my time, because i have the ability to predict issues and have the guts to stand up and solve them even if i don't immediately know how.
second point: modular upgradeable architectures are, by definition, upgradeable. by backing the project now, you're supporting us *being able* to bring upgrades in a continous, affordable and ethical way. i've found two SoC candidates that i'm investigating: one's the R8 (so we could bring people a $20 computer card) and the other's the Samsung Octa-core A64 which we could do a massive upgrade in about a year's time, instantly quelling all of the complaints.
third point: if you want to carry on using a backdoored processor (from intel or AMD), please feel free to continue to explore that space. for everybody else: aside from X200s which are regularly failing in the field due to their age and being over-stressed by modern OSes and uses, there really isn't anything else. we've looked.
fourth point: comparing this project to mass-volume priced well-established incumbents is not going to help you... or this project. i'm seeing this mistake being made enough times now that i'm going to do a special update about it. you can't possibly seriously compare a crowd-funded project with a MOQ of 250 units and an ethical business model to *any* profit-maximising unethical multi-billion-dollar company like apple, HP or Dell and expect me to take your anonymous comments seriously.
does that clarify matters for you?