Niche expansion cards

Another idea for an expansion card: An “air tag” card that just can hold an air tag (or similar device) so you could find your laptop.

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A USB AM/FM antenna would be cool, you’d probably need a double-height / longer card to fit in all the electronics but it’d be doable.

Also @D.N I’m pretty sure you’d be able to put a tile without modifying it into a custom housing if your strip down the outer plastic.

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  • 2FA
  • GPS
  • nanoSIM

Why not just use a yubikey?

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Why not just use a USB device instead of any expansion card? Because this way is better and more fun.

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…I guess you save a millimeter of space…

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This one is most likely doable and would probably fall under an SDR card. I have some ideas and have started to work on one, I just need to get a Framework at some point to test it :sweat_smile:.

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For anyone thinking about a GPS Expansion Card, there’s a new module that would fit nicely: MIA-M10 series

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Looks quite simple, might be able to design a module to integrate this, I just do not know how to do RF design well.

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Opto-isolated USB-A, switchable between 1.5MB/s or 12MB/s, have a working prototype without the switch.

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Someone should play around with these

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A FPGA would be interesting :slight_smile:

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A welded-together chain of USB Type-C cards. The final one is a PS/2 port just for variety.

Or, a VGA card. So I don’t have to use a DP to VGA adapter to plug my 19" CRT monitor into the Framework. 10-bit HDR, 333MHz clock would be just about “decent” in CRT monitor world but among the best in VGA adapter world.

Oh, since Thunderbolt is just PCIe, you could put a GPU on a card theoretically. So here’s a suggestion to make the Framework a dGPU laptop: an NV48 fabbed at 7nm. Or, if that’s too conventional, a set of four VSA-100s with 128MB each, also at 7nm, for the native Glide support.

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I don’t know how you’d manage to convince any company to fab an 18 or 22 year old GPU - that is so niche it’s just a pipedream unfortunately.

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An RFID Tag capturing doo-hickey. Much better than having a larger system running in a back-pack. True Stealth mode.

Definitely a cool idea. I enjoy tuning in to local radio stations on the move. Mobile connection can often be spotty and having a reliable way to tune in to some music is always appreciated. Bonus points when one is visiting other countries!

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You can just give them money. I think that’s enough of a proof of your willingness.
The problem is more of “why”. Newer designs are not only more efficient due to the node but almost always superior (e.g. memory layout) making old chips if anything complete obsolete.
Yes, trailing-edge node’s production is insufficient even before the pandemic and having one only amplified the problems. TSMC is building a new trailing node facility I believe, but SAMD21G18 have already queued up for over a year. Not really gonna work for my (ongoing) project.

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Small enough chip footprint to fit in the expansion card slot plus VRAM for basic desktop acceleration if the integrated GPU dies. Both GNOME and KDE can accelerate the desktop with as low as an NV30/R300/GMA 9xx. I can vouch for the GMA 950 being enough for full desktop acceleration on KDE 5.25, it’s just smoother than the stock Mac OS X Tiger on this laptop.

how about a matrox g100/g200 or similar?

zero 3d ability but it will run a desktop.

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Should go great with the KDE 2 bringup from a couple years ago.