[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: > I'm curious about the concept (and practice?) of "Open Hardware" as analogue > to Open Source ... To what extent is this concept, is anyone doing anything > along these lines? Where do such discussions take place?
There have been a couple of examples of "openhardware", some more vigorous than others. You can read about the pros and cons of it here: http://opencollector.org/Whyfree/ And there are some designs at: www.openhardware.net as well as a certification program started by a friend of mine, Henry ("no relation") Hall, that was more or less still-born in 2002 at www.open-hardware.org Some projects, like the Simputer, allow you to license the design at a reasonable fee. Some companies, like www.solarpc.com, offer to license their designs to countries that wish to build their PCs locally, giving local people assembly jobs, etc. There are some other projects like http://www.zapatatelephony.org/ that have the schematics, parts lists, etc. online for building peripherals. Unlike software, however, most hardware designs have a limited life due to changes in availability of chips, minimum expectations in functionality and speed (very few people want a Z80 design today). On the site openhardware.net there is a nice design for a small development system utilizing the Dragonball processor which could be built by high school students. Alas, the Dragonball (once the basis, I believe, of the Palm Pilot) is no longer built by Motorola. Also, more and more hardware designs are descending into integrated circuits that are designed with sophisticated (read "expensive") software tools, simulated on sophisticated (there is that word again) software, then "built" in a Fabrication plant. Typically not something to which your average high school has access. Colleges, perhaps. I remember a web site that allowed you do develop printed circuit boards and "test them out" for free, then submit them to a company for manufacture. I have heard about web-based tools for integrated circuits that are the same, but there is still that cost of making "that first one". Then after you make "the first one", comes the issue of making more, and setting up a manufacturing line and quantity buying that can make them cheaper than Taiwan. In a lot of areas it is not the cost of the hardware itself, but the import duties put on it by governments. Witness the fact that laptop computers going into Brasil are typically 50-100% more expensive than in the states, and we both buy them from Taiwan or China (for the most part). Basically I think it comes down to this (and please pardon the simplification): o software you can do on the back of a napkin, napkins are relatively "free" o hardware you need to have a signal analyzer, and that costs money maddog (who has done both hardware and software) -- Jon "maddog" Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
