Talk:Open source hardware

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[edit] IBM Cell Processor

What about the new promising IBM Cell Processor?

I read at many places, it is supposed to be "open source hardware":

  • Is it only the interface specification to the hardware, which is open?
  • Or is the whole hardware design (including verilog source code etc.) public available?
  • Or is even the hardware design licensed under a licence which fulfills the 4 freedoms of software/OS Definition?

If anybody knows sth. about it => Please add it here!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.95.147.244 (talk • contribs)

[edit] OpenRISC Comment

I have removed a comment after the bullet point for OpenRISC which said, "one sufficiently good that there is no need to apologize for any part of its design". Was there any good reason for it being there? If so an explaination would be useful. --Dave104

I think it was trying to be a roundabout way of saying it was hoping to be competitive with commercial systems. --maru (talk) contribs 04:23, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Terminology

Is it really true that all of this is strictly open source and not Free software? I see a GNU project mentioned, and I doubt they'd ever allow their stuff to be merely open-source. --Maru (talk) Contribs 03:23, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Openhardware.net deceased or down?

openhardware.net appears to no longer function, or at least for me. Has it disappeared? --Rspanton 01:06, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Open design and open source hardware

There is another article about 'Open design' which covers open-source physical goods beyond electronic items in more detail - focusing more on mechanical design and the tools needed in that field. The term 'hardware' can be fairly subjective of course, but most of this (the Open source hardware) article focuses on computer and electronic hardware. I'm just mentioning this for those that didn't know of the existence of the other article and perhaps its worth making more of a distinction when adding links to projects? Naturally there are always going to be some projects that overlap, but perhaps the more overtly mechanical projects should be in the open design article? Although the subjects are obviously closely related I think there is enough of a difference to warrant the separate articles. Of course, feel free to disagree - CharlesC 12:47, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Using "hardware" in the title of this article was a mistake. It's too vague. The person probably meant it to mean "computer hardware". As Wikipedia has grown, the need for clarity has increased. Would anyone object to this article being renamed to "open-source electronic hardware design" or similar? Gronky 18:26, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
I agree that the title is problematic, but we should come up with something less clunky than "open-source electronic hardware design" before we do a move; I think even "open source hardware" is better than that. -- intgr #%@! 18:39, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
I just made a significant addition to the article: the opening paragraph about Kiani, Nayfeh and Vallance, the founders of "open design." We should respect the historical or commonly-accepted terms. "Open design" has become the standard term for open-source tool design (particularly machine design). "Open hardware" or "open source hardware" are the two terms commonly used for open design of integrated circuits, which is a very special subject. "Open hardware" is thus a sub-set of "open design." To try to blend these two articles into one would make quite a mess of it all. Redeyed Treefrog 20:36, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Open Hardware or Technology?

"Open source hardware" as defined seems to limit discussion to computers and the components that make up a computer with perhaps a nod to computer peripherals and no nod whatsoever to other types of open source technology like the Oscar project, for example. In short, the entry seems to have morphed into something that the entry title no longer describes.

This is a bit of a problem because many types of technology contain "computers" but can't be considered a computer for practical purposes in any reasonable manner. Modern automobiles, for example, will have as many as seven microprocessors that manage the engine alone.

I think, perhaps, we need to think about how we categorise all of this and have something like "Open source technology" of which "open source {computer} hardware" is a subset.

Ideas? Feedback?

Plaasjaapie 18:22, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Did you notice the comment just above, that discusses the distinctions between open source hardware vs open design? :) -- intgr 20:55, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
As can be seen in my addition to the preceding section, I completely agree with Plaasjaapie that "open hardware design" is a subset of "open design." But he seems to be saying that "open microcircuit design" is in turn a subset of "open hardware design", whereas the latter term is often used to refer exclusively to the former. A similar observaton was also made by Gronky above. Redeyed Treefrog 20:45, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cars not hardware

It is stated that "Open source hardware refers to computer and electronic hardware that is designed in the same fashion as free and open-source software. "

As such, cars would need to be removed and moved to the open design-article.

Please look into it.

Best regards,

81.245.167.252 16:21, 29 October 2007 (UTC)