Ranier-
I took a look (again) at your page and your product is quite impressive. But for me the thrust of this thread was how to go to the next step.
What I am seeing from all the present vendors is a display intensive system - show the pilot more and more detailed information - and for me that is not what I want. It's nice for example that some systems (yours?) gives me detailed data about the cylinder head temperature, the EGT, the RPMs the maniforld pressure, the voltage, etc, etc, etc, hoping that I as the pilot will interpret all of that moment by moment and be able to discern when the engine is going bad.
For me though, I'd rather have the computer do all of that, and as long as the engine is running normally not show me anything about the engine at all. (Is this a computer system I can trust with my life or not? If not, then it should be.) As long as the engine (for example) is doing OK I don't want to be bothered with it. If it begins to develop a problem, then I want the computer to put up all the data and suggest what is wrong and what I should do about it.
Same way with almost anything else that the computer can touch in the airplane. As long as everything is nominal I want just the minimum of information in front of me to keep my on course and tell me where I am and let me go about the business of flying the airplane. When something goes wrong, then I want the computer to be helping me with all sorts of options -where the closest landings spots are, configuring radios for emergency use, providing checklists, and so on. That is all more than just a flight display, that is serious avionics that requires a more dedicated and specialized computing platform.
I am not seeing anything like this in the current batch of avionics, so I am motivated to roll my own. Of course, I need an airplane to roll it into and I am still working on the rudder.
--John Babrick