The approach you suggest implies that the product has a substantial enough display for the user to interact with the unit via the keyboard. If you already have that the keyboard is just fine.

It is just that I have worked on some products that spent 95% of their lifetime doing some mundane task and the control panel for the mundane function requres but a few LEDs and a push button or two. However the same product has some setup, calibration procedure, database access, firmware upgrade, data log retreival, password control etc. etc. that needs to be done less than 5% of the time. I have found that notebooks make a really good solution for the access point for these functions. Sometimes using just a terminal emulator, other times a Visual Basic program.

I just suggested it because sometimes people look at their product design from a 100% of function viewpoint instead of 95% of usage viewpoint. If it is possible to save significant cost in the production cost of a piece of equipment by evaluating the 95% of usage senario then I think that should be considered. I don't know the whole picture regarding Raghunathan's project and thus am just offering another way to look at the equation. If product has a $35 LCD module and PS2 capability to support 5% or less product usage and an installation has a significant enough number of units the cost of a notebook computer becomes small in comparison. Particularly when sometimes the volume is small and re-furb off-lease units would go the job right nicely.

Thanks for hearing me out.
Michael Karas