Phoneblocks: the blockers

[Prashant Sohani]

This one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDAw7vW7H0c is going viral, and it's easy to see why. I guess we all want to see something like this happen; only, the blockers (in terms of technology/design) are quite severe, for such modularity to emerge without sacrificing many niceties of a fully integrated design.

Though in a way, this has already begun: First there was the iPhone; it might have convinced many people ( even till today :D ) that decoupling even the hardware and software 'blocks' is an undesirable move. But soon came along Android; and despite the resulting fragmentation of interfaces and experiences, it does nevertheless dominate today. Probably owing to the advantages of cost and customization.. but at its heart, I feel is the power of h/w s/w re-use.

So.. I thought it'd be nice to generally discuss.. the probability and feasibility of such a project as Phoneblocks, or even the specifics of what may be needed to build such a system etc.

PS: should probably extend this discussion to robotics club

PPS: how could/should such general discussions be carried/maintained in fruitful way in the future? perhaps a forum, or is the Google groups way good enough?

[Rahul Prajapat]

This is really awesome, but upgrading everything up on a single base, how feasible is it ? Like upgrading camera to a higher quality camera module needs different kind of processor, may be only cpu ll not work then speed block also needs to be customized. So I mean choosing some interface will force to modification in other parts as well, essentially a new hardware gadget.

I think IITB tech (or elec club) forum ll be nice, something kind of edaboard, properly categorized n well maintained.

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[Ashwin Kachhara]

Reminded me a bit of an FPGA. The issue I see is that since, the module positions are not fixed, so the pin locations for the i/o of each module need to be known by each other module. Plus, each time a reconfiguration in position of the modules occurs, we will need to reconfigure the pinboard itself.

But its a very catchy and elegant idea! :D

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Ashwin Kachhara

Senior Undergraduate

Electrical Engineering Dept.
IIT Bombay

Ph: +918879006186

Email: ashwin....@iitb.ac.in

[Prashant Sohani]

Elegant indeed. Now, what is needed to piece this together?

a) Interfacing of electrical components/signals:

Looking at some points raised above:

Like upgrading camera to a higher quality camera module needs different kind of processor, may be only cpu ll not work then speed block also needs to be customized.

The issue I see is that since, the module positions are not fixed, so the pin locations for the i/o of each module need to be known by each other module.

Well.. both problems may have partial solutions in the form of current PC motherboard technology: It's pluginable-upgradeable, (even for seemingly complex/important peripherals such as a CPU/GPU); and one doesn't have to worry about which component is physically connected where, and how powerful it is; because the peripherals simply use a consistent signalling convention/protocol to communicate on a common PCI bus! ( this may be an oversimplification since I don't know many specific details, yet.. in principle )

So.. the base on which all the Phonebloks parts are mounted is electronically speaking, just a glorified PCI bus/power rail!

b) Interfacing of locking mechanical assembly

 Well.. I'm currently drawing a blank on this one.. at best I remember watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_UJVhwtcsI . Robotics junta.. any thoughts/suggestions?

[Prashant Sohani]

[ Resending earlier mail: ]

Elegant indeed. Now, what is needed to piece this together?

a) Interfacing of electrical components/signals:

Looking at some points raised above:

Like upgrading camera to a higher quality camera module needs different kind of processor, may be only cpu ll not work then speed block also needs to be customized.

The issue I see is that since, the module positions are not fixed, so the pin locations for the i/o of each module need to be known by each other module.

Well.. both problems may have partial solutions in the form of current PC motherboard technology: It's pluginable-upgradeable, (even for seemingly complex/important peripherals such as a CPU/GPU); and one doesn't have to worry about which component is physically connected where, and how powerful it is; because the peripherals simply use a consistent signalling convention/protocol to communicate on a common PCI bus! ( this may be an oversimplification since I don't know many specific details, yet.. in principle )

So.. the base on which all the Phonebloks parts are mounted is electronically speaking, just a glorified PCI bus/power rail!

b) Interfacing of locking mechanical assembly

 Well.. I'm currently drawing a blank on this one.. at best I remember watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_UJVhwtcsI . Robotics junta.. any thoughts/suggestions?

[Prashant Sohani]

So.. consider that the base of the phone consists of electronically speaking, nothing but a few parallel channels running all over the area; they'd include a signal communications bus (much like PCI), a power rail, anything else? Probably a lot more, looking at resources like http://ancillotti.hubpages.com/hub/Understanding-the-hardware-architecture-of-smartphones

Mechanically speaking.. no idea again, some robotics ppl might comment on this..

Suddenly, this seems more doable than it appeared at first sight! Of course it was always 'doable'; the issue really is the trade-off of performance achieved in the same size/form factor. But that is just about reverting to an older technological capability, by some few years. Even if one could achieve this modular design with the performance of just an old-school Nokia phone; it's quite a remarkable achievement. How can one possibly get an estimate on this perf aspect, before trying to build the device?

[Ashwin Kachhara]

The reason we integrate circuits, is generally to save on area and reduce parasitic effects. Wonder how that will shape up in this case, since we are keeping it extremely modular.

[Prashant Sohani]

yeah; just the mechanical space wastage would be immense. But looking at the future, even the remaining tiny space should eventually be enough to pack in a lot of performance.
​

[Ashwin Paranjape]

Key Constraints

1) Size - Each modern smartphone is diligently packed for the size and thickness we enjoy. Many components overlap and the design is three dimensional. Here there are only two dimensions to play with. Boy these phones are going to be huge

2)Electrical Properties - Not an expert here, but I think components like ram and processors place constraints on connection width and length. So separating them and upgrading the ram block seems difficult. Also don't we need to take care of interference between different blocks? For eg. processor and battery should not be close because of heating problems? Again not sure if the different wireless modules could interfere.

Not so key constraints

1) Defining industry wide protocols for communication between modules.

2) Having a tiny processor on each module to interface.

On the brighter side -

Till now we've been talking about modularity as being the key component. I would say transfiguration is more significant. Say I have a smartphone with a few spare blocks, but I'm on a long journey and I just want it for rudimentary communication, so I can replace non-essential components like GPS, Wifi, bluetooth, maybe even the processor with a larger battery. Or consider the case where I go out in the wild and want to take high res pictures. So I replace non-essential components including GPRS module with a bulkier telescopic camera.

PS - Pardon for redundancy, a few mails arrived after I started writing

Ashwin P. Paranajape

4th year CSE Btech.
IIT Bombay

[Ashay Tejwani]

Really interesting concept! :D

Reminds me of Cubelets - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EDsLayRKQA .. These are neat units, each having a specific function and can be configured in different combinations to create different kinds of robots for different functions.. 

Something designed on those lines might make this more feasible to incorporate most of the features discussed above (takes care of the mech aspect as well, only they need to be shrunk a lot more)?

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Ashay Tejwani | 4th Year UnderGraduate | Metallurgical Engineering and Material Science | IIT Bombay

[Anurag Mundhada]

Apparently Motorola (Google) have been working on a similar project for a year now. They are working with Phoneblocs now on the concept:

http://motorola-blog.blogspot.jp/2013/10/goodbye-sticky-hello-ara.html

Anurag Mundhada

[Ashwin Paranjape]

Update. Last time, it didn't boot, this time it did.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/29/heres-what-googles-lego-style-phone-project-ara-looks-like-right-now/