It might be beneficial for Outlaw to start evaluating the options for the sort of "open platform" processor that Rene is suggesting, but tying that to the 990 seems painfully difficult if not impossible.

I dunno if it's as impossible as you might think, gonk. After all, Etronics developed two somewhat different products on the same platform so there is some degree of modularity already present in the 990 design, (though balanced outs and DVI switching were clearly hacks).

The burning qustions in my mind are: How much? And, can some of that trickle down to the hacker?

I would not expect it to be a big priority for Outlaw, but I would expect it to be something they should think about.

Oh, and as for the HD1000, it was marketted as displaying high-res pictures. Hackers made it play back HD video in real-time, weather information, etc.