Well, thats exactly the point and it was mentioned before. The whole thing is meant to be cost effective, so who would invest in a backpane that serves no purpose? I mean people who would get such a card really dont care if they have to wire them up seperatly onto a usb hub for 5 bucks or on a backpane that will be 50 bucks or more, I'm pretty sure they'll go for the cheaper alternative, it the backpace doesn't add any kind of feauture... The only reason to design a backpane, would be if it had some additional functionality, nobody is going to buy it, if its just a nice way to stack up the doughterboards.
And as far as I see it, that fuctionality would be Ethernet!
Ethernet for standalone mining is definitely a good idea. I was thinking of another possibility for this, though, which would undoubtedly be cheaper than making this board and implementing the ethernet yourself: use a
Pogoplug or Dockstar! These are basically a USB to Ethernet link, running a Linux operating system. If you install the
Archlinux build for it (I've done this on a Dockstar and it's very easy) you can run whatever software you like on it.
As for the mechanical benefits of a backplane, I think stacking these cards up with standoffs would make for a nice, sturdy unit. For example:
http://www.zerksus.com/images/overlay_stack.jpgStick that into an enclosure with a USB hub inside it and you've got a nice little mining box that you can set next to your PC. Want it standalone? Put a Pogoplug inside that box!
That's my feeling about it, but I suppose nothing would stop one from using the backplane/motherboard if you really wanted it. The only important question will be cost. PCB production generally costs by the area, so such a large board could get expensive.
