Turning a Raspberry Pi into a tiny Linux notebook

Well, they do exist as mass-produced devices that can be hacked. I am not inclined to do that. I've lived in that world in the past and it can be a minefield. Designs can change on you overnight and you are screwed.

Yes it is a bit of wishful thinking, agreed. I've been messing with embedded Linux for probably ten years on an off. It was very hard to get close to $100 in OEM board cost as early as three years ago. So, yeah, this ain't my first rodeo.

I posted the "wish" to HN because I've been out of the loop for about two years and just didn't know what's available. The iMX233 @ ~$5.00/100 (not thousand) is impressive enough. Still, not ethernet without going through USB first. That chip, as far as I can tell, seems to be the lowest cost potential to approach the $25 to $35 price range in reasonable quantities (100x to 500x boards).

The Olimex board:

https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/iMX233/iMX233-OLin...

goes for $54 through distribution

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Olimex-Ltd/iMX233-OLINUX...

A very quick calculation using mostly Mouser and Digikey --which are very expensive sources-- tells me that an iMS233 board should be doable for about $35 to $45. Keep in mind that this is by buying from the most expensive sources. I am always pleasantly surprised when I go to Avnet or Arrow for pricing. Sometimes your jaw drops to the floor. Digikey in particular is just about unusable for anything beyond prototyping. All of this tells me that the $25 number might be approachable with very smart and careful purchasing of all components and services. Going to China would certainly knock it down but you'd have to push larger quantities from the get-go.

I think I can consider an all-up cost of about $50, in the box and ready to go. This includes the assembled board in an very simple enclosure and a regulated wall adapter.

Right now I have a very mild itch I am thinking of scratching. Just looking around to see if it even makes sense.

Be careful with model or even revision numbers, always check hardware compatibility lists. very often times the difference between something like a "653" and a "653+" can be an entirely different (and not supported) chipset.

Excellent! Lets go over the points one last time:

"Well, they do exist as mass-produced devices that can be hacked." - Absolutely, that was why I mentioned my USB extender device, it too uses the A9X CPU that TP-Link is using. Nobody has yet seen fit to offer a 'general purpose' unit (ala the RasPi) for sale, but if you're willing to commit to the large volumes and upfront costs that are needed you can make a few hundred thousand.

"Designs can change on you overnight and you are screwed." - also exactly right which is why these aren't "parts" rather they are a lean way to bootstrap a prototype. Sometimes you can duplicate the OEMs design, sometimes they rely on side relationships, for example TP-Link builds a lot of stuff, so they may get a much better price on the A9X CPU than you could even buying a lot of them.

"I posted the "wish" to HN because I've been out of the loop for about two years and just didn't know what's available. The iMX233 @ ~$5.00/100 (not thousand) is impressive enough. Still, not ethernet without going through USB first. That chip, as far as I can tell, seems to be the lowest cost potential to approach the $25 to $35 price range in reasonable quantities (100x to 500x boards)." - Yup, and some chips like the STMicro 32F107 (Cortex M3 ARM) which has Ethernet on chip is under $6 in 100's but doesn't have the MMU. The A9X also has ethernet on chip but I've not been able to wade through the Chinese well enough to figure out what to order (these things power the $35 android tables in the back markets of China).

"I think I can consider an all-up cost of about $50, in the box and ready to go. This includes the assembled board in an very simple enclosure and a regulated wall adapter."* - You might be able to do that, but you may have a hard time find them in the retail channel for that. Even the RasPi is over $50 when you add power supply, case, SD card, and a serial interface.

"Right now I have a very mild itch I am thinking of scratching. Just looking around to see if it even makes sense." - Ah bingo! If you read nothing else, read this. I can guarantee that you will eventually be able to get this for $25. Build your idea out of any of a dozen different ideas (ideally one where you have good software resources or kernel support) and then you have "in your pocket" an idea that is almost ready to go if you can get the price down. Then you watch the channels, EE Times, etc and predict when the pricing is going to cross your threshold. Then about 6 months before contact the folks who are going to make that possible (chip vendors etc) and then partner with them to get early access. Then you can "ship" on the same day general availability hits.

Bottom line if the idea works don't worry what things cost right now, get the leg work done on stuff which has to be done regardless of chip availability.