Sorry for the slow reply; I will be mostly offline until the middle of next week.
Unfortunately I do not know a whole lot about FCC compliance and certification. My background is in compilers and VLSI; it's well known that I'm really bad at designing PCBs
I would say "astronomically unlikely".
Noise is a somewhat vague term and can mean a lot of things. Adding clock buffers is something you do in order to stabilize the on-chip clock signals. It is not something you do to reduce the device's electromagnetic emissions. In fact, if you care about EM emissions you really ought to go with a clockless design, but that's starting to get off-topic...
You raise some very interesting questions about whether or not BFL has obtained FCC certification, but I don't think this has much to do with Nasser's vague "clock buffer" comment.
Somebody else mentioned that BFL had to acquire unusually high-current "wall wart" adapters. Again, I know very little about FCC certification, but I do know that the requirements drop drastically if the power supply is a separate device; this is why so many electronic devices use wall-wart adapters: you can certify the device and the wall-wart separately. Or maybe that's Underwriters Labs certification. Anyways, I don't know much about this.
@ Eldentyrell
I would like you to elucidate on a point related to clock buffer and electromagnetic noise.
Question: Do you remember when one BFL representative started to mention FCC requirement for certifying a device and various other certification required for producing a device that complies with various international regulations?
I would like you to elucidate on a point related to clock buffer and electromagnetic noise.
Question: Do you remember when one BFL representative started to mention FCC requirement for certifying a device and various other certification required for producing a device that complies with various international regulations?
Unfortunately I do not know a whole lot about FCC compliance and certification. My background is in compilers and VLSI; it's well known that I'm really bad at designing PCBs
Is that the reason why additional clock buffers were added? To reduce noise?
(Admittedly, this is unlikely, but possible)
(Admittedly, this is unlikely, but possible)
I would say "astronomically unlikely".
Noise is a somewhat vague term and can mean a lot of things. Adding clock buffers is something you do in order to stabilize the on-chip clock signals. It is not something you do to reduce the device's electromagnetic emissions. In fact, if you care about EM emissions you really ought to go with a clockless design, but that's starting to get off-topic...
You raise some very interesting questions about whether or not BFL has obtained FCC certification, but I don't think this has much to do with Nasser's vague "clock buffer" comment.
Somebody else mentioned that BFL had to acquire unusually high-current "wall wart" adapters. Again, I know very little about FCC certification, but I do know that the requirements drop drastically if the power supply is a separate device; this is why so many electronic devices use wall-wart adapters: you can certify the device and the wall-wart separately. Or maybe that's Underwriters Labs certification. Anyways, I don't know much about this.