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In the aerospace world, a "flat sat" (https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Opened-out_FlatSat_for_CubeSat_testing) is a development mockup of satellite splayed out on a bench with all the boards easily accessible for testing.
Is there a similar term of art for a spread-out functional prototype that's not a spacecraft? I feel like it should have a name but I'm not aware of one.
@azonenberg how about a “splat” ?
@jpm You could invent lots of terms, I'm asking if there already is one.
@azonenberg I'm not aware of any either. We're using them all the time, but don't have a canonical term for them. "Versuchsaufbau", "Testaufbau", "Experimentalaufbau"...
@hennichodernich yeah thats the thing, I figure anybody building complex multi-board systems has flattened prototypes somewhere in their lab.
And if so many people are doing it, it *must* have a name... right?
@azonenberg @hennichodernich dis-integrated prototype? or just flattened prototype?
@azonenberg @hennichodernich I'm not sure, I did once work for a company that built a full switch with line cards and we had a one-line-card test jig (basically a flat board which would take one test line card vertically - and that wasn't even a standard line card) - but we didn't have any other 'flat' setup.
(naming that test jig was fun; a meeting where the group spent 20min arguing over it, and I told them to call them 'george & mildred' and to get on with the meeting - and I was the junior).
@azonenberg @hennichodernich I've heard "The butterfly collection". Also "Plated assembly" as opposed to "Potted assembly".
@azonenberg of course tjey cant avoid speaking about "possible AI payloads" ffs...
@azonenberg maybe "testbed", "testbench" or "breadboard", although none of these terms necessarily imply all the hardware being laid out flatsat style.
@destevez Yeah I'm about to build a flatsat of my Ethernet switch and trying to figure out what to call it lol.
@azonenberg I can't really find a suitable translation from German to English but at the automotive industry they call that "Brettaufbau" (board installation maybe?) because they build the electrical ECU on a big board with easy access to all parts