Open Hardware Upgrade of Asus DIY Platform

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (Taiwan)
Technical Support
Hotline: +886-2-2894-3447 (0800-093-456)
Fax: +886-2-2895-9254



Dear Product Designers of Asus Corporation!

this is a request for a simple product upgrade of one of your products, which is extremely popular in the DIY gadget scene to serve as a homeserver, all in one appliance, router, webcam, network attached storage, torrent downloader, radio station, mp3 player and much more.

with the decision of Asus to use GPL software in the firmware, Asus opened the platform for a large number of developers, enthusiasts and hobbyists making it a successor of the popular Linksys NSLU2.

nevertheless the last technical upgrade (asus 500gp V2) only implemented a few cost effective optimizations while the features were not upgraded. we dont want to upgrade to the atom platform, which comes at a much higher pricepoint with much more power consumption. we need a simple upgrade of features for this machine which is basically a fine and economical base system for embedded software projects.

here is a list of features which are definetly needed:

- 128 MB RAM instead of 32MB with socket to upgrade ram so-dimm.
- draft N wifi (not just a/b/g, please keep the mini-pci)
- 4 USB slots (better than 2 USB slots)
- gigabit switch (not just fast ethernet switch)


make this available for 150 dollars street price!
probably in black instead of white.

please consider to release parts of the hardware and documentation under a free license.