[SGVHAK] Open Hardware, Crowd Funded "Laptop", ARM with FPGA

[Braddock]

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On 04/05/2014 06:06 PM, James McDuffie wrote:
> Braddock sent a link around previously about an open hardware
> laptop.

If one was serious, the chip manufacturers usually have reference
designs which could probably be open sourced.

About 18 years ago I worked on an open source project which got
Motorola and IBM to open source their PowerPC reference motherboard
design, called YellowKnife and Long Trail.  The intention was to make
an open source PPC desktop system.

Not much came of it but a lot of plans and block diagrams and a
realization that the open source PCB tools were not up to the task at
the time (one may argue pretty strongly that they still aren't).

The other realization was that making a feasible and affordable PC was
an exercise in logistics and volume as much as engineering.  I think
at least in that case the situation for small run production has
improved vastly since the 1990s, and crowd funding today could
probably tackle the capital costs.

- -braddock

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