Any single item will be cheaper to implement on the motherboard. It will not
be cheaper to implement *everything* on the motherboard, however. Ethernet
is cheap and simple to implement - at least it was back in '87, when I last
did so. I can't expect that it is harder now.
For me, being simple to do is not a reason to put it on the motherboard. The
data rates are modest, and it's not universally wanted, so I say leave it
off.
My budget for the whole computer is about $1600. I break that down as
follows:
box $100 (PC box, w power supply)
monitor 500 (decent monitor)
RAM 240 (8 MB)
disk 200 (170 MB disk)
kb, mouse 100
PCB 100
CPUs 120 (20 mhz 3051 & 3041)
video 120
pals 60
skts, etc. 60 (sockets, leds, connectors, crystals,
diodes, caps, resistors, etc.)
-----
$1600
That leaves me $0 for all the other features on the board. I want a boot
rom, and SCSI, and serial ports. Something has to give. I hope to save some
here and there over these estimates, but I can't afford much of a wish list.
If you have $3000 to spend, then your list can be longer, but in that case,
it doesn't matter so much if it saves you $25 to put a feature on the
motherboard, anyway.
|