Common Building Block
Common Building Block (CBB) is a set of technical standards for laptop components introduced by Intel in 2005, and adopted by some manufacturers.
Creation
In 2004, the Common Building Block program promoted the use of industry-accepted mechanical and electrical specifications for three notebook components, or 'ingredients': 14.1-inch, 15-inch, and 15.4-inch liquid crystal displays (LCDs); 9.5mm and 12.7mm optical disk drives (ODDs); and 2.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs). The program consists of:
- A Web site to provide a centralized repository of information about the program, participants, and platform and ingredient specifications
- A continually updated list of CBB-compliant ingredients (submitted by suppliers)
- A testing and verification service for candidate products
The repository site mobileformfactors.org was established to standardize components, currently including:
Disadvantages
- Although it promised interchangeable components, it does not include standards for graphics components.
- Keyboard standard does not include layouts incorporating separate keypads or pointing stick.
- The layout for navigation keys is widely different from the desktop 101/104-key keyboards, making it difficult for desktop user to switch to laptop keyboard layout. As a comparison, the keyboard layouts in Dell Inspiron and IBM Thinkpad arrange Ins, Del, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn keys in a 3x2 block; and Prtsc/SysRq, Scroll Lock/Num Lock, Pause/Break keys in a 3x1 block adjacent to the 3x2 block.
- The standard for keyboards specifies that 'all CBB compliant keyboards must comply to the Windows Vista Hardware Start Button specification beginning in 2007-06-01', marginalizing users of non-Windows operating systems such as Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, and others.
Advantages
References