On Tuesday 09 January 2007 11:10, Lourens Veen wrote: > On Tuesday 09 January 2007 11:38, Hamie wrote: > > The way I see Open Hardware is > > > > * The freedom to use the hardware, for any purpose (freedom 0). > > * The freedom to study how the hardware works, and adapt it to your > > needs (freedom 1). Access to the register level documentation and > > interface timing information is a precondition for this. > > How would you adapt the hardware having only register level > documentation? You would need more than only the outside interface; > you'd need board schematics for example to be able to replace broken > parts. >
If you have the interface timing you have pretty much all you need. Perhaps I should have said pin descriptions as well. But I was thinking at the chip level. Not board level as a whole. > > * The freedom to redistribute copies of documentation so you can help > > your neighbor (freedom 2). > > Help your neighbour doing what? Use his own hardware maybe, but that's > covered under freedom 0 already. > I've seen/heard of agreements that would stop you talking to anyone who hadn't made the pledge as well... Hmm... Info on games consoles used to be like that didn't it? (It seems to be more open now, but still fairly tight & you still can't do with it what you like & then help someone else to do the same thing). > > * The freedom to improve the hardware, and release your improvements > > to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). > > Access to the register level documentation and interface timing > > information is a precondition for this. > > And again, you need more than that. > Maybe we differ in what I mean by register & interface... For instance the phillips TDA7033 (FM Decoder)... That would pretty much qualify, because you can buy it (In theory, I'm not sure I've found a source for quantity of 1 anywhere though), and the doc savailable describe the registers & pinout with timing interface. Sufficient to build a board with it. That pretty much describes what we'd like to see for hardware in the computer world... No? > > Looks fairly similiar to what was in the previous messages about free > > software really. But it's the Interface (Register and timings) that > > are important. Not the arrangement of transistors in the package. > > (This may be an important point for some people... I think it enables > > proprietary hardware that simply has a Free & Open interface.. > > But these (documented and use-for-any-purpose, and Free design) are two > separate things, and you are conflating them. > No, I know they're two separate & very different things... However, I don't think free design is mandatory... But documented & use-for-any-purpose is very important. (Not to say free design isn't nice, but unless you're talking something able to be implemented on an ASIC [assuming you're talking chip or chipset], it's pretty much useless to the average person because who's got the money to build a custom chip, or even ASIC... Hamish. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
