Introduction: Upgradable Tablet Concept

This was my entry for the Jack Daniels Independence Project Contest. I am no longer working on this project, but check out Google's Project Ara or the Novena laptop for more in the same vein from other groups working on modular computing.

Tablets are great. You can do all kinds of cool things with them and they are more convenient to carry than a laptop. There is one major problem I find with them: they aren't upgradable like our previous computing devices, particularly desktops. On a tablet, whenever a new display technology or processor comes to market you have to get an entirely new device if you want to upgrade.

I have started working on an upgradable tablet using an industrial computing module called Colibri. It has an nVidia Tegra processor like many tablets currently on the market and can be paired with a carrier board and other components to make an ARM-based computing device. Since the system is modular, when the next generation of ARM processors comes out, you can simply swap out the processor module and have an upgraded tablet.

With the Jack Daniel's Independence Project reward, I would be able to get the remaining parts necessary to complete the prototype and gather the resources necessary to bring a modular tablet to market.

Jack Daniel's Independence Project Contest

Participated in the
Jack Daniel's Independence Project Contest