Resurgence of Open Hardware in the News
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-06 15:55:56 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-06 15:55:56 UTC
Arduino
Novena
We’re launching a crowdfunding campaign around our Novena open hardware computing platform. Originally, this started as a hobby project to build a computer just for me and xobs – something that we would use every day, easy to extend and to mod, our very own Swiss Army knife. I’ve posted here a couple of times about our experience building it, and it got a lot of interest. So by popular demand, we’ve prepared a crowdfunding offering and you can finally be a backer.
Speaking at the Embedded Systems Conference today, Andrew “Bunnie” Huang introduced a project dubbed Novena. He said that the hardware and software specs for the machine will be made available for anyone to use.
Earlier this year, the two Singapore-based engineers fashioned a laptop made almost entirely from open source hardware, hardware whose designs are freely available to the world at large. They called it Project Novena. Anyone could review the designs, looking for bugs and security flaws, and at least in theory, that meant you could be confident the machine was secure from top to bottom, something that’s more desirable than ever in the post-Edward Snowden age.
Minnowboard Max
Intel has beefed up its open source single-board computer and cut its price in half.
The Minnowboard Max features an open hardware design and is targeted at software application development pros and enthusiasts who want to code for the "deeply embedded" market.
Not to be outflanked by rivals, Intel has released the $99 Minnowboard Max, a tiny single-board computer that runs Linux and Android. It is completely open source – you can check out the firmware and software here – and runs a 1.91GHz Atom E3845 processor.
The board’s schematics are also available for download and the Intel graphics chipset has open-source drivers so hackers can have their way with the board. While it doesn’t compete directly with the Raspberry Pi – the Pi is more an educational tool and already has a robust ecosystem – it is a way for DIYers to mess around in x86 architected systems as well as save a bit of cash. The system uses break-out boards called Lures to expand functionality.
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