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Bunnie Huang Shows Off His Open Source Laptop (Video)
Bunnie Huang is both a hardware and software hacker, but that's greatly understating the case: renaissance man is more like it. Bunnie doesn't just tinker with one-off system modifications or console mods (though he's done that, too) -- he creates and repurposes at scale. (He's also an author, respected researcher with interesting thoughts on a wide range of topics, like how to think of the H1N1 flu from the point of view of a security researcher.) Bunnie's latest long-term project has been mentioned a few times on Slashdot: It's an open-source laptop computer that goes much farther than some other open-source hardware projects, and as a bonus includes an FPGA as well as a conventional -- but unusual -- processor. (Bunnie grants that there are still bits that aren't quite open source, but points out that we also don't have the software that runs the fabs; there's a point of diminishing returns.) A crowd funding campaign (via CrowdSupply) was successful enough to also fund several stretch goals, including a general purpose breakout board. I talked with Bunnie at the recent Bay Area Maker Faire. (Expect more from that show in coming weeks.) He walked us through the state of the hardware, and talked about some of the design decisions that go into making a computer that is of, by, and for hackers. (Alternate video link)
The IBM PC/XT and PC/AT used entirely commercial off-the-shelf chips on the original motherboards. The Intel 82xx family of peripheral chips, to be exact. There were no ASIC or custom chips. The full schematics were published in the Technical Reference Manuals, including peripheral schematics. Yes, the floppy drive and hard drive included. All the commented BIOS source code was published in the TRM as well. This fact actually 'hurt' the BIOS re-write effort as anybody interested could read the source, and most people's view at the time this action 'contaminated' them from being able to write a clone BIOS.
If you want the schematic diagram for a Hard Drive, or the source code for the firmware of a Hard Disc controller card, you just had to buy the Technical Reference Manual from IBM. Which wasn't cheap, but it was obtainable by anybody with a few hundred dollars.