My few cents: I've seen a lot of talks from people asking to "add this feature", or "get this one", which simply doesn't seem to be possible within ONE small sized board.
So, I think It would be rather strong move to somehow make mini Pcie interface on the board, maybe even sacrificing something for this
. The electrical interface for mini PCIe doesn't seem to require many lines...
This approach will automatically solve many requests.
For example, for making more Ethernet interfaces:
http://www.pridopia.co.uk/images/8111me-d.jpgSATA ports:
http://www.hwtools.net/jpg/PM362_2.jpgSSD drive:
http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/images/P/FPM32GLSE.jpgAdditional USB 3.0 ports:
http://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/ ... 2.Main.jpgPlug full-sized PCIEx1 board, if somebody ever need to gain access to VERY wide variety of interfaces
available on PCIE boards:
http://www2.multithread.co.uk/linitx.co ... roduct.jpgAnd many, many others...
It will also save trouble of programming GPIO or designing custom adapters; overall applications will become much more flexible as well.