Quoted from pezpunk:it is absurd to me that people are acting like MMR's platform isn't a huge upgrade over the original. the WPC / WPC95 is far from flawless even by 1990s standards. burnt connectors, blown fuses, bad transistors or whatever happened all the time. the only advantage the original setup has is that the problems are well known and documented. that beaglebone setup in the backbox will have none of those issues -- virtualized hardware doesnt overheat. that beaglebone will run realiably for decades -- it is proven hardware, not something PPS invented. it's far more reliable tech than that wall of boards ever were, and will be far simpler and far cheaper to replace (i believe it retails for $45) even if it does have a problem.
I've never seen burnt connectors on any WPC era or later CPU board which is what the Beaglebone is replacing.
Like Odin said, you still have to drive the solenoids and leds (which do require less power than the original lamps). For power dissipation, components being more spread out is better, so I think the way the new system uses multiple power driver boards is a good thing.
The Beaglebone and power driver boards might not be too expensive to replace but I hope their LED lighting system is as robust as they expect because if an led goes out on the big board I expect that will be expensive to replace and a lot more work than replacing a bulb.
Still, the new electronics should be more reliable than the 20 year old originals. And, if some design flaws are discovered once the games are out, wouldn't you expect PPS/Chicago Gaming to take care of them?