[LINK] Open Source PC Design

[Richard Chirgwin]

Careful what you wish for, Stephen ...

First, I agree that the VIA idea is a nice development in the industry. 
It makes sense: "make it easier and cheaper to use VIA chipsets, and 
more people will do so".

But:
> I'd buy an open source design house too, maybe with modules from different
> companies according to whim. 
What bit of civil engineering isn't at least as open as anything in the 
computer industry? Let's see: the "look" produced by a particular 
architect is copyright. But the stuff that matters - the engineering 
maths, the facts about the materials, etc - is public. If you want to 
know how much load a wall can stand, you need only (a) look at the 
design specs of the products involved, if you're buying modules from a 
company; or (b) do the maths on the materials you're using, if you're 
building from scratch.

The copyright protection used by the open source movement to ensure 
proper attribution and to prevent public knowledge from being privatised 
has also been used in the civil engineering context for years.

So my question is simple: what would "open source home building" do that 
we can't already do?

RC
stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Great post Bernard
>
>  "The idea of open source manufacture is taking shape, and we're going
>   to see more .. 'open source' hardware .."
>
>
> Yes .. open source engineering .. a few peak designs, and made everywhere.
>
> For example, efficient small urban vehicles, hybrid solar/ultra-capacitor?
>
> Sure, slow & basic by open source design, but ultra-reliable and mega-green
>
> Both self owned, and hired by the hour/day from community re-charge centres
>
> Open source car designs may finally transcend commercial car design idiocy.
>
> I'd buy an open source design house too, maybe with modules from different
> companies according to whim. Very satisfactory to live, and drive, so green
>
> Just like in computer software, and now computer hardware, I think open 
> source design of common items will indeed become common. Seems a better, 
> non-commercial-fad, wider-community rather than individual-buyer, based 
> design philosophy. May seem communistic, I don't know, or care, but open
> source engineering design is already happening because people want it to.
>
> And I'd like to buy a car that everyone made simply because they wanted to.
>
> Cheers people
> Stephen Loosley
> Victoria, Australia
>
>
>   
>> Chip Company Unveils Open Source PC Design
>> By Dylan Tweney
>> 05.27.08, 6:00 AM
>> Wired
>> http://www.wired.com/gadgets/pcs/news/2008/05/via_design
>>
>> Call it the Tom Sawyer approach to selling CPUs.
>>
>> VIA Technologies, the self-proclaimed No. 3 maker of Intel-compatible 
>> processors, has unveiled a new "reference design" for ultra-portable 
>> computers based on the company's own low-power chips.
>>
>> Making a reference design is common fare in the high-tech industry. 
>> Chipmakers like Intel have been doing it for years as a way of proving 
>> the technical viability of a product concept. What sets VIA's approach 
>> apart is that the company is posting the computer-aided design (CAD) 
>> files for its OpenBook PC under a Creative Commons license. Anyone with 
>> design skills and a burning desire to get into the PC business can 
>> download the files, modify the design and go into business selling ultra 
>> portables.
>>
>> Taiwan-based VIA will even help aspiring Michael Dells find Asian 
>> manufacturers to do the hard work of turning those CAD files into real, 
>> plastic-and-silicon products.
>>
>> VIA's design is on the commercial end of a growing spectrum of "open 
>> source" hardware. On the other, more noncommercial end are hackable 
>> hardware kits like the Arduino platform, which was used by many 
>> exhibitors at the recent Maker Faire in San Mateo, California. Open 
>> source aficionados were also buzzing last week about the release of the 
>> OGD1, a development kit that could be used to create open-source 
>> graphics cards.
>>
>> If VIA's idea takes off, it could help add more juice to the 
>> already-humming market for ultra portables. That market, which had long 
>> foundered on the impractical aspirations of a tiny minority of 
>> mobility-obsessed hardware geeks, took off in earnest last year with the 
>> success of the Eee PC, Asus' $400, Linux-based ultra portable.
>>
>> For industrial designer Scott Summit, VIA's move is part of a gradual 
>> shift toward more highly-customized manufacturing, in which small 
>> companies and even individuals are able to design and build their own 
>> products, thanks to the decreasing costs of fabrication.
>>
>> "The idea of open source manufacture is taking shape, and we're going to 
>> see more of it because the barriers (to highly customized production) 
>> are really starting to evaporate," says Summit.
>>
>> VIA's design calls for a 2.2-pound PC with an 8.9-inch screen, a webcam, 
>> up to 2GB of RAM, an 80GB or larger hard drive, and built-in Wi-Fi and 
>> Bluetooth (or, optionally, WiMax or 3G cellular data). It's not wanting 
>> for ports, either, with an Ethernet jack, three USB ports and an SD card 
>> slot.
>>
>> The design is aimed at smaller design-manufacturers and upstart PC 
>> companies rather than big PC manufacturers like HP or Dell, who create 
>> their own designs (like HP's new MiniNote) from scratch.
>>
>> "When we look at reference designs, they're helpful, they're insightful, 
>> they give us an optimal layout from an engineering perspective -- but 
>> they don't target what we're aiming for," says Stacy Wolff, a notebook 
>> design director for HP.
>>
>> VIA's hope is that its design will encourage new designers to make ultra 
>> portables that are a little less ugly than the usual fare. It's a bet 
>> that the PC market will soon follow in the footsteps of the cellphone 
>> market, where what's under the hood is less important than how it looks.
>>
>> "It's not really about the components inside at all," says VIA vice 
>> president Richard Brown. "It's personal jewelry."
>>
>> Almost makes the idea of starting your own computer brand sound a little 
>> sexy, doesn't it? And for the chipmaker, it's not far from the notion 
>> that if you want to get a fence painted, start painting it yourself and 
>> try to make it look fun
>>
>> -- 
>>  
>> Regards
>> brd
>>
>> Bernard Robertson-Dunn
>> Sydney Australia
>> brd at iimetro.com.au
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Link mailing list
>> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>>     
>
>
> Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>
>