It's also not designed or built by Eyetech, so they have to pay Mai, the manufacturer (FIC?)
I think we've guessed the manufacturing partner is
Topshine. Mai needs to get paid for the chips, but use of the reference design should be a two-way street (Mai sells more chips, companies like Eyetech get a product); the high cost of the pre-AmigaOne Terons subsidizes the developer/design support from Mai, and perhaps manufacturing by a bigger name, like FIC.
Of course, without real knowledge, there is the chance it could be the other way around- Topshine could've done the small Teron runs, and FIC could be doing the 1,000+ unit quantities, with their larger manufacturing capabilities. I'd think FIC would be able to do QA in-house, though, while Eyetech seemed to say they had to find a third shop to handle that.
