Mini-ITX MiniMig 2.0 and the Yaqube ARM board...

[Belial6]

It's not a hardware controller.  It is a plug in replacement for the original PIC that controls the SD functions.  The HD support is in software.  The problem is that the original PIC was not powerful enough to handle everything it was currently doing AND support hardfiles.  We saw some pretty significant improvements to the PIC software from the time the minimig was originally produced and now.  No doubt we will see more improvements with a more powerful processor replacing it.  The first big improvement being hardfile support.

[Belial6]

Partly, it appears, but there is also a USB connector on the board, so I assume that that requires at least some circuitry.  It is also possible that the ARM does not have everything in chip that the PIC does, so that could add circuitry.  Someone would with more experience with the two would have to tall us that though.

[Belial6]

Yes, he has said before that the USB is used as a device and not as a host.