Given the solutions listed below, what is path of least resistance for the community to hack their hardware for Copperlan given the plethora of opensource hardware projects out there? Maybe one way is to encourge another ALEX production run with a group buy?
For manufacturers needing Ethernet capability into their hardware products, three solutions are at hand:
1. Using an Ethernet-capable chip of own choice. This freedom implies the associated development effort and cost.
2. Using a generic turnkey solution. Manufacturers can buy the low-cost CopperLan specified microcontroller from a supplier of their choice and program it with the firmware we provide, or alternatively, buy it readily programmed for development and small production runs.
3. Use the embedded Linux implementation we offer. This allows having both the CopperLan service and the application code to run on the same chip.
In addition to network handling, an Ethernet/CopperLan capable microcontroller (1 & 2 above) contains the CHAI, and a CHAI-link server. The implementers only need to integrate a small CHAI-link client code in their application microcontroller to benefit from the entire set of CopperLan capabilities