Hell may actually be a rather good place for SMT work, with a nice constantly high ambient temperature :-)

Other than that, while it's an issue that eventually has to be resolved, it's not something I'd be overly worried about just yet. Even if GDC wouldn't want to be involved - and I see ruffled feathers but no burnt bridges there - or would be busy with some other project, I'm sure we could still obtain the names of the fabrication companies and contract them directly.

And even if that would not be possible, there are other manufacturers out there, some of which we already know from previous projects.

In this industry it's important to be flexible and over-reliance on having found the one "perfect" solution for every task or problem is what gets you killed.

So while I hope very much that GDC's experience, skills, and dedication will be available for manufacturing Neo900, we'd be a sorry bunch if we couldn't find an alternative if necessary. Finding a good contract manufacturer is not trivial - that's what some of the more spectacular manufacturing failures demonstrate - but it's doable.

- Werner