Brilliant! I would buy one today if it were available.
The comments from the naysayers are amusing. They don't seem to realize that many of the additional features you're suggesting already exist in $3 Arduino clones, $1 shields, and adapters that fit inside of USB connectors. All of these features are both cheap and tiny; they just aren't currently put in laptops. This design looks entirely doable to me, and I wouldn't expect it to cost much more than a typical notebook.
One additional suggestion: Add a permanent ROM-based OS that can optionally be booted from via a BIOS option. Perhaps a stripped-down secure version of Linux like Tails. And one that runs entirely from RAM once it is booted, like Puppy Linux. (Puppy Tails?) The OS must be true-ROM-based, so it can't be flashed, corrupted, or overwritten. Yes, it would get out of date in a hurry, but you would have confidence that it hasn't been hacked. It would give you the tools you need to do a lot of diagnostic work even if your main OS is having a problem--especially then. SSD is flaky? No problem, run the ROM OS until you can replace the SSD. Main OS has zonked itself? Boot into the ROM OS, fsck the disk, hand-edit some files, replace others, rinse and repeat until the main OS is happy again.
Thanks for the great idea and all the work and thought involved in making it almost real! I hope that a manufacturer like Lenovo or Toshiba sees this and runs with it!
The comments from the naysayers are amusing. They don't seem to realize that many of the additional features you're suggesting already exist in $3 Arduino clones, $1 shields, and adapters that fit inside of USB connectors. All of these features are both cheap and tiny; they just aren't currently put in laptops. This design looks entirely doable to me, and I wouldn't expect it to cost much more than a typical notebook.
One additional suggestion: Add a permanent ROM-based OS that can optionally be booted from via a BIOS option. Perhaps a stripped-down secure version of Linux like Tails. And one that runs entirely from RAM once it is booted, like Puppy Linux. (Puppy Tails?) The OS must be true-ROM-based, so it can't be flashed, corrupted, or overwritten. Yes, it would get out of date in a hurry, but you would have confidence that it hasn't been hacked. It would give you the tools you need to do a lot of diagnostic work even if your main OS is having a problem--especially then. SSD is flaky? No problem, run the ROM OS until you can replace the SSD. Main OS has zonked itself? Boot into the ROM OS, fsck the disk, hand-edit some files, replace others, rinse and repeat until the main OS is happy again.
Thanks for the great idea and all the work and thought involved in making it almost real! I hope that a manufacturer like Lenovo or Toshiba sees this and runs with it!