On Tue, 12 Jun 2007, Joe Friedrichsen wrote:
On 6/12/07, Rod Whitby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
OpenMoko (the registered organisation, separate from FIC the company who
is creating the first piece of hardware designed for the OpenMoko
software) never promised open hardware. They promised open software
(the OpenMoko software, which is being developed *completely* in the
open), and they gave some dates that they *expected* (not promised) FIC
(the hardware company) to be ready to sell some hardware (the Neo1973)
that the OpenMoko software runs on.
Yes, most of the hardware designs and schematics aren't distributed,
but there are shadows of scraps here and there thanks to Werner (
http://svn.openmoko.org/developers/werner/usb-pullup/new.spice ). The
Neo appears to be a well-assembled collection of chips and parts not
designed or fabbed by FIC. They took some Legos and made a remarkable
product. It's like a capstone design project on steriods.
Given that this phone is meant to be opened and tinkered with, I
imagine that schematics could be drafted without too much strain. The
phone could then be //conceivably// reproduced. However, I don't know
at this point how valuable open hardware would to an individual be
since silicon and copper aren't that easily modified or produced at
home. Quality surface-mount soldering and RF noise are just a few of
the smaller hurldes to jump over.
Software has the advantage for now :-) Those simple text files are
just too easy to change!
Until we get our own fab-labs,
Joe
Good points, Joe and Rod.
To add to this, consider that this device has a JTAG port, and that you can
buy the necessary interface card and cable for $150, and that the debugger is
open source.
So even with though the hardware was not promised to be open, we have
tremendous visibility into it.
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