Assuming this is true, what would bring about this major change between the sheevaplug and the guruplug?

Ideally 205 mW extra for the sata port (worst case 410 mW if both are on). The extra NIC probably means an extra 700 mW (when loaded, but we have to assume the worst). Wifi/bluetooth is probably adds a few hundred mW too. So 1W of extra power isn't unlikely.

My *guess* is that the SoC runs at 1.7W in the sheevaplug, the memory probably contributes in the order of 1.5W, again a guess based on some random DDR2 datasheet i checked.

It's not unlikely that the sheevaplug heated up too, but how did it avoid getting warm/hot at the network plug?

EDIT: I now notice that the sheevaplug was stacked differently, the daughter board is between the main one and the psu, while for the guruplug the psu is next to the main board.

Strictly speaking there is 4GB SLC microsd, it's just very very rare.

http://www.atpinc.com/p2-4a.php?sn=00000391

But for your purposes i understand your problem.

The AP mode of 88W8688 does not appear in the upstream driver (libertas_sdio), is this a feature that will go upstream eventually?

EDIT: found the patch, and i was wondering why this isn't an extension to the current driver (IW_MODE_MASTER support). Does it not meet the requirements for a proper accesspoint?

Something interesting appeared on a wiki page http://plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/Recreating_the_GuruPlug_RFS.

It was written by a Marvell employee (it seems), so that might explain why he knows. Ofcource i'll believe it when i see it

I haven't seen any evidence that master mode will work (the driver makes no mention of it as far as i can tell). If it were supported it would be mentioned in the datasheet.

It's an 88W8688 according to the guruplug block diagram, which looks like a wifi/bluetooth solution originally intended for mobile phones. Neither the datasheet or the driver (http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=drivers/net/wireless/libertas/if_sdio.c;h=7a73f625273ba7730aac480e377a85df64161aa5;hb=HEAD#l97) contain any references to master mode. So it's safe to assume it isn't supported.