Joined: 30-Sep-2003 Posts: 8111
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
@digitaldisaster
RE: Serial and Parallel -- I'd say put the header on then.
RE: AMD8111 w/ 2 USB 2.0 ports --- I'd like to see more but if you got rid of the Gig-E and freed up ports to use for PCI-X then someone can add in their own USB port card if they needed more then 2 and didn't want to use an external USB Hub.
RE: Firewire -- again there are PCI Firewire cards and some sound cards, such as the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 come with Firewire built in. Once again this would be great to have on the board but if it's an ATX board there will probably be room for the expansion.
Maybe you should think about getting a board to work then adding on the additional USB and Firewire ports as a step prior to production if time allows.
CHIP IDEAS: Philips PDIUSBD12 has double buffers that store two full setsof data in each direction the mulitplexed parallel bus can transfer up to 1Mbps. Philips USA 1321 has Digital to Analog converters so someone could use USB speakers. -- Though I'll admit my data is old I haven't looked at USB Chips in quite a while.