Phonebloks

[snowsurfer]

I came across this video on facebook so had a quick look into it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDAw7vW7H0c

What do you guys think? I'm interested if it works!
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Past Bike: 07 Honda xr125l
Current Bike: 99 Yamaha Fazer 600

[The Artist]

This will never work.

One reason is that manufacturers work together with all components meaning they like everything to share power supplies and different components may use different voltages and frequencies. This means each block will have to have its own power regulators and some components may interfere with each other.

Cool idea made up by an art student, not an engineer.

Much more realistic idea is custom order you make direct to a manufacturer. They might have a list of options and you pick what you want depending on restrictions and they can manufacture and test to make sure it all works OK.

[Charlie]

Most designs have pretty similar voltages; 3.3, 2.8, 1.8 are all pretty standard, although the RF power amp may require something different. I'd imagine the power regulators would be part of the battery 'block.'

The problem with the design would be inflexibility of the base. It would cause inefficiency as various blocks have to convert their output to match what ever is defined in the block.

It also probably wouldn't be as flexible as they make out. I'd imagine only certain blocks could be interchangeable. A Wi-Fi or camera block would need LVDS traces where as a bluetooth or audio bock might be able to use I2C.

Even if it doesn't take off as the creators might hope, we do need to solve our electronic waste issue. Making electronics more modular and reusable has to happen if we want a sustainable future.
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[Frost]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Intel_80486DX2_bottom.jpg

look how many pins a cpu has. yet it would need connect through the same pins as a camera would use? so the board has to be designed for cpu like throughput speeds between every single board pin. every pin will need to connect to every other and the phone figure out it's own architectural model?

[Charlie]

I think it would be possible, but you wouldn't get the best battery life or the best performance like modern phones... But you do get fully customisable hardware.

I have been thinking about it and you'd have to set a standard. I.e. it has to use 1mm pitch, pin 1 to 5 are various voltages, 6-9 are SPI bus 10-20 are LVDS pairs, 21-24 are I2C etc. You could probably be quite clever and set SPI pins to fall under the power.
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[Irn-Bru]

It would be huge and cost a fortune.

Personally I sell old my old phones on, that's my bit of recycling done
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KTM 990 SMT & Suzuki DR-Z 400 SM

[daemonoid]

[J.M.]

It's not pretty enough to be adopted by everyone.

People want the thinnest and the most elegant.

Geeks/hobbyists want interchangeability.
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2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

[prawny1]

This would need the industry to be standardised, but even that would not result in reduced electrical waste.

Computers have been fairly standardised for some time, but standards change and as such the older stuff becomes obsolete as it doesn't meet the new standard, those components then become useless.
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hellkat wrote:

Some people are only alive cos its against the law to kill them.

[Derivative]

Posted a rather large diatribe on Facebook about why this is a bunch of nonsense, but I'll try and summarise.

This post will be long because it really is an utter waste of time and totally dead in the water.

1) Computers were upgradeable. People disregarded that modularity in favour of smaller form factors and now even modular laptops are becoming a minority. Primarily because the end user does not care about the nebulous concept of 'speed' - they want an overall package and generally a new shiny.

2) Technology moves too fast to set the interface. See PC motherboards as an example. You might have a socket for 5 years, tops, then every component has to change around it. Or SD/DDR1/DDR2/DDR3/DDR4. Five memory standards within just over ten years.

3) Looking back at phones, you wouldn't 'upgrade the speed and throw the old one'. In two or three years, modern smartphones have higher resolution screens, better radio chipsets (4G vs 3G), faster processors, more RAM, better cameras. Even if the modularity were feasible you'd replace the lot.

4) The bulk factor. Recent smartphones are starting to move towards fixed batteries because those can fit around components. In this design the bluetooth chip alone takes up a huge portion of the phone and the battery is forced into a small block in the corner because it can't shape around the rest of the phone.

[metalangel]

So rather than get a new phone every three years you are tempted into replacing a component every few months when a slightly better one comes out? Plus, if the components are likely to be superseded like this AND are easily replaceable, why both making them to a high standard?

So still a huge pile of garbage in the landfill, just it's in smaller pieces.
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Previous: 2002 Honda CB500 (sold), 2007 Suzuki SV650SK6 (crashed), 2005 Yamaha FZ6 Fazer (sold). Currently bikeless
"A faired bike will get you 10x more clunge than a unfaired one." -Marlboro Matt