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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)
His standard of open source is very different from the IBM BIOS rewrite:
Novena PVT HW Design Source
if you go there you can download all board design files to go make the PCBs and get them populated at your favorite board shop. (mechanical sources for the case are also available). This allows anyone to make improvements to the hardware as well as the software and feed it back into the community.
He also made component selections that further the open source accessibility: the CPU does not require an NDA to get the full documentation (unlike, say, the Broadcom chip in the Pi, or any Marvell chip ever), and the same goes for the rest of the chips on the board. No Bluetooth since ALL BT chips require a blob driver, but he can include a WiFi card that has open source firmware so he does.
The campaign was successful enough that they have also partnered with Jon Nettleton to create an open source driver for the 2d/3d graphics blocks inside the CPU which only has a proprietary driver now, this will help every Linux distro and user that has an i.MX6 board from any vendor run a completely open stack.
Feel free to correct my impression that after someone rewrote the IBM BIOS not everyone could go download IBMs design files (note: this is different than having "PC/AT compatible" designs)
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.
Sure it would have, but I'm having trouble finding a quad-core 1GHz version that is fully documented and available for purchase.
I think bunnie's choices are pretty pragmatic based on his original goal of wanting a machine he knew and could share the internals of, but could use day to day.
Finding a high-volume, current-ish, high-end SOC with truly available documentation leaves you with few choices.