@yaqube:
Less complex components, less cost, less soldering mayham. So if the present MCU (PIC) can't handle FAT16 then we might create a small MCU with large memory inside the FPGA that does handle the non-boot stuff.
Btw, I definitly like your switch to DRAM, hopefully it's bugfree too
(DRAM is tricky)
The SDRAM pinout might differ. But then you can also totally reconfigure the i/o pins to accomplish the new task. And thus wire the SDRAM to the pcb pads for the SRAM.
@Illuwatar:
Do you think it's possible to shrink the actually used area on the pcb such that any would-be-laptop-hackers can cut the board into a smaller form factor to fit a mini laptop. While still keeping the Mini-ITX formfactor.
Using same pcb for both users = less costs.
But I guess the board is as compact as it's possible to make it.
