PC's and EFI

[Gregory A. Parmer]

On Tue, 17 Mar 1998, Robert Harris wrote (many words
of great wisdom!!):

<lots of snipping...>

> Current reasonable prices - Pentium MMX motherboard - about 85 bucks - Intel

Cheaper/faster by the day.

> Your problem is VIDEO.  If you plan to use any off the shelf software, you

Not to mention the horrible mess a CRT would make in a wreck.

> The option of writing your own operating system exists ONLY if you do not
> want ANY commercial software to run on it. A compromise if you plan on no
> upgrades is to take DOS 6.22 and any device drivers, accept the fact that
> you probably will never be able to upgrade and live with it.

They're bored and will want to build another system soon anyway... :)

> And start up time - I really love this "Concern".  Do you think your ECU
> "starts" cold every time you turn the ignition on? Try disconnecting the
> battery and see what happens.  Boot the damn thing when you hook it up, let
> it go into the power save (notebook give you a clue?) mode and live with the
> milliamp drain to keep it alive.  Any interrupt can trigger it back alive.

The car ain't gonna crank until you've got fuel pressure anyway. I liked 
the idea of booting it whenever you turned it "off" and going into the
sleep state waiting for the next crank.

> I could go on for days about this, but don't bother.  The only practical way
> to run a PC in a car is a NOTEBOOK.  Any other package will cost you much
> more for much less. It already runs on 12 volts (option available), it
> already has a supported display, it already is ruggedized and vibration
> resistant and you can use some of the ports to interface to whatever.  It
> even gives you a chance of having it working before the asteroid arrives.

I haven't seen the PC104, but while it has the benefit of a small
footprint there are some super advantages to using a notebook if you
wanted a PC in a car.  If the only argument against a notebook is
it's size, someone had better look under the dash. There's even room 
in my Saturn for a notebook, but it already has EFI. My Camaro probably
has room for a mini-tower. It still makes sense to me to use a
notebook for development and implement it with the PC104 *if* that floats
your boat.

> All of the above is why I am considering stamps and pics to build my own
> system - in small, doable modules.  I prefer to de-complicate defecation.

I'm with ya there too. A system (based on stamps?) with a notebook for
tuning/monitoring/control(?) could give the best of all worlds. I'm
seeing plenty of advantages to modifying an OEM controller for
myself though.

> But what the heck do I know anyway.

Plenty, obviously...with a hint of reality thrown in to piss off
the "idea rats".

-greg