> How close are we to a 100% free-design multimedia PC platform now?
Depends on how you define that. I know of at least one free-design
mainboard (schematics, PAL/GAL programming information, gerbers, etc.
are all available). But I doubt that the internals of the chips used
are freely available. While ideally we would have full information
including gate level schematics and photolithography masks, I might
be willing to settle for "only" having all the documention we need
to use the part, not everything we need to duplicate it. Perhaps
we need to define levels of openness?
level 0 = totally secret
level 1 = totally secret, but provide a binary for 1 or 2 OSes
level 2 = documents how to use the device, maybe provides driver source
level 3 = documents how to use the device, and provides enough info
that we could duplicate the device (modulo patent and/or
copyright protection)
This is just off the top of my head, I'm sure these levels could be refined.
So the board I referred to above would be level 3 for the PCB itself,
but I assume the chips used are "only" level 2.
> I do know that CPU, soundcard, and video card doesn't get us there, but
> those
> are among the big, complex, and expensive pieces that have generally been
> regarded as barriers.
Does this OpenSPARC require a "chipset"?
Are there open designs for SATA, Ethernet, Firewire, USB controllers?
PCI/PCIe interfaces?
> As Sony dumps DRM pirate-ware onto people's PCs, and the industry
> promotes what RMS likes to call "Treacherous Computing", the idea of a
> comoditized, decentrally-produced, free-designed, DRM-free, community-
> vetted platform becomes increasingly attractive.
Sony is especially annoying, since they used to be the good guys (Betamax).
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