Another use case for comet is for web development with an achievable hardware design for comet with the following stock peripheral ports: wireless hdmi + wireless keyboard + wireless mouse
Happy to share that the new Comet announced (https://www.youtube.com/live/QssMPn3K_HE) will support a Display Out, and of course you can use keyboard mouse.
This should enable some level of remote development ability.
That is great news, but unfortunately I read in the KS comments section that the SoC does not support DP alt mode. Is that true for both SoCs? I didn’t check their datasheets.
You said in your comment that the team ruled out “LVDS to DisplayPort to DisplayPort over type-C and lose signal quality” and that even you were bummed about this during the design step. Since we’re still somewhat far from the final production of the IMX95 variant, and you currently have the evaluation kit only, I think this topic might deserved more consideration.
I posted this on KS already, but this forum is definitely a better place to discuss. I would like to emphasize how critical DP can be to support mobile displays, including XR glasses, which no longer are toys. They have improved insanely over the past few years (to the point that XREAL, for instance, is winning awards CES every year now), with things like built-in spatial anchoring, real-time 3D conversion on any content, and 32:9 or 16:18 virtual displays (with 1080p or 1200p viewports), all without any OS or software dependency, thanks to onboard computation in a distro-agnostic chip inside glasses. This has made them really good portable monitors, compatible for work and programming, and of course content consumption on huge screens.
With some distributions and/or WMs, an extra software layer can also be added, to allow adding high quality virtual monitors with minor performance impact (no GPU computing required), and you just tilt your head to look at them. See VertoXR, LinuxXR, Breezy Desktop.
XR glasses, and portable monitors for that matter, need power though, and having to use a mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter, then HDMI to USB-C with an extra USB-C input port for power would kill portability and defeat the point. USB-C docks are also a thing that can’t be ignored for a device that runs the mainline kernel and has a relatively low battery life; people will want to use docks for easy convergence, ideally with a single cable to manage.
Apparently using LVDS would limit the quality to 1080p@60fps, which would be the ideal resolution for most mobile monitors and XR glasses honestly. XR glasses offer more screen estate by creating a virtual ultrawide monitor (with the onboard chip, no software involved), so it still is happy with a 1080p feed and you just tilt your head to see the other 1080p part. The MIPI-DSI that the mini-HDMI port probably uses should support up to 4Kp@30/3840×1440p@60, which is great, but shines in entirely different use cases. I think both have their own merits, and if using LVDS to type-C can be achieved, it would be a great addition to the Comet.
I think there is an opportunity not to be missed, even at the cost of some signal quality loss if that what LVDS entices. I know this is also time and engineering, but seeing the success of the KS campaign so far, as well as the amazing documentation and git repos you guys already made available, it really looks like you’ve got the shoulders for that kind of challenge, and I believe it would make the device a lot less niche since it would open up a significant number of extra uses for it, and hence extra users too.