I haven’t blogged on technology in quite awhile, so this is past due. My friend and regular WUWT and Climate Audit commenter Steve Mosher has started out on an open-source/open hardware project that is pretty impressive. I thought it would be worth noting here since so many WUWT readers are also techies. So many of the PDA gadgets like Palm and iPod are closed platforms, that for those that want to develop competing hardware products with niche applications, the challenge is huge. Mosher has started a company call Qi Hardware, which offers an alternate way of developing handheld device applications both at the hardware and software level. Qi Hardware builds copyleft hardware running a stable Linux kernel and free software. Their first product is the NanoNote™ a small multifunction device, seen at left. It folds like a micro-sized laptop or net-book.
The mission: provide free software developers with stable, mass market quality hardware that they can develop compelling end user applications on.
The initial product ships in fall 2009. If there are any readers that can envision applications for this, now is the time to check it out. I can envision several industrial and scientific uses for this platform. I’ve included Mosh’s description and vision of the product below. – Anthony
Qi Hardware, founded on the belief in open hardware, produces mass market quality hardware applying free software principles to consumer electronics. The three fundamental elements in our development are copyleft hardware, upstream kernels and community driven software. Each of these form a vital part of our Qi or “energy flow”. Only if developers truly know how the device functions can they exploit its maximum potential, only if we maintain and move the kernel upstream can applications make use of the newest technology, and only if we listen to the community and work together with our customers can we redefine freedom. For a short overview on Qi check the FAQ.
The first time the NanoNote was put into my hands it was “simply” an electronic dictionary. But when I heard the music, watched the video, and played around with a few of the applications it became clear to me that I was holding an ultra small notebook computer, or an ultra small netbook. I saw beyond what I held in my hands. But the only way to make that vision a reality, in my mind, was to open the device. Open it for the software development required and open it for the hardware enhancements we would need to make. As it stands, the device is a great beginning. We call the first version “ben” signified by the Chinese character 本 which loosely means “origin” or the beginning place.
Above all else the size of the device offers a compelling promise. In today’s market we see a variety of devices all competing for that valuable space in your pocket, purse or backpack. We see capability being pushed into phones. We see notebooks shrinking to netbooks. For us the NanoNote has a unique form factor in this dynamic marketplace. It’s small enough to be a “phone” and capable enough with its color screen and keyboard to work as a netbook or ultra small notebook.
The technical specifications are relatively straightforward. It is powered by an Ingenics XBurst processor, which is a MIPS compatible core, clocked at 366 MHz. The roadmap for this processor family is strong with follow-on versions. Strategically, we think that Chinese processor suppliers have competitive MIPS compatible CPUs and developers who are keen to work on a processor that can compete with ARM/Intel offerings will find that the NanoNote presents an interesting and cost effective development platform. That CPU also has the ability to boot from USB. This makes the device instantly “unbrickable”. Nobody foresees a situation where they will “brick” their development platform, but Murphy’s law rules and “unbrickability” is a key design criteria at Qi hardware.
In addition to having a unique processor, the NanoNote comes with a color display. That immediately makes the device a candidate for development aimed at image content. We were pleased to see that the device could support playback of video files and that the display of pictures. With the right software you have a small form factor video player, or small photo album device. And if you add in the fact that it can record and playback audio, then you open up other possibilities. We’d love to see a device dedicated to displaying Creative Commons content.
Finally, the last thing that appealed to us was the storage. Currently the flash in the device stands at 2 GB, but going forward we can increase that to 8 GB. And the device has a microSD slot and supports SDIO. With microSD cards supporting up to 32 GB of storage, it’s clear that the device has the ability to store and use a good amount of data. We can see users storing music on the microSD, or OpenStreetMap data, or an offline version of Wikipedia, or OpenCourseWare, or photos, or movies, or caches of the web. You name it. But the microSD slot gives us more than that. Through SDIO we belive that we can support SDIO peripherals such as Wi-Fi over microSD, GPS over microSD. There is even a camera that can be attached via the microSD slot.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
@Pamela Gray (13:35:31) :
“Sorry, but making things smaller does NOT help when you are passed 50! Now where did I put my cheater glasses?”
Same problem here, Pamela. Now, when someone comes up with a device that small that projects 600mm wide holographics, by gum, I think they’d have something every boomer would want.
I carry a B&L 10X magnifier on my keychain to suplement my glasses. I’m waaaay past cheater glasses. (Maybe a pocket scanning electron microscope would be better yet!)
Risking being called a Luddite here.
Better than 300 DPI isn’t that bad for a screen.
Sort of reminds me of the arguments for HDTV, you can’t really SEE the difference!
DaveE.
For one dreadful moment I thought you had named it QI for those with a backward IQ. As for future preferences, my main PC time is still spent in data transcription so I’d see voice capability as important.
I’m not much of a gadget user… I don’t even own a mobile phone now that it isn’t necessary for me to have one. So I’m a philistine when it comes to using gadgetry. As far as I am concerned nothing beats a spirax notepad and a good medium point papermate biro….. I still call radio, wireless. Though I do notice that the term wireless is coming into vogue again;-)
That said, I am all for competition and diversity. So Good luck Mr Mosher.
Waay OT but WUWT over at Arctic Roos
http://arctic-roos.org/observations/satellite-data/sea-ice/ice-area-and-extent-in-arctic
It’s gone a bit wobbly
Indy (16:43:48) :
> Not sure what if any advantage there is to “open” hardware. If it is an IT device in need of software the hardware guys bend over backwards to give you the detailed specs. Developers rarely have to fight for info from hardware.
This is not true in general. BIOSes in most computers, even ones running free software from the kernel up, are still proprietary precisely because the hardware specifications are kept under wraps.
Gary (11:01:46). Agreed, we are encouraging the hardware geeks to join the free movement. Instrumental in that is our decision to use KiCAD for the EE and our decision to post the design files under a copyleft license. As you can well imagine the “discussions” over what to build become pretty heated and usually it’s decided by the guys with the access to the design files and the access to design tools. Consider this an experiment in opening up that process.
tallbloke (11:23:31)
The Battery life is fairly good since the original design served as a electronic dictionary. with another .5mm, I’ll squeeze in a higher capacity Li-on. WRT the various RFs, those will get added first through peripherals ( SDIO and USB) and then integrated. Long road ahead.
IConrad01 (11:32:44) :
Android, We put Android on my last project. The initial ports go quickly. basically since we are an open device you can put anything you want on it. Provided you have the programming chops. With Android and the current device you might hit memory limits ( prolly will) basically I’m distribution agnostic.
Steven Kopits (15:49:18) :
You mean where he criticizes efforts to forge agreements that focus only on CO2?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5ebdb666-82a5-11de-ab4a-00144feabdc0.html
That is worth commenting on.
Jim B in Canada (12:03:49)
Thanks Jim. The first version is limited. By choice. Over time we will add RFs. First by peripherals ( USB OTG and SDIO) and then integrated. The first device is really targeted at developers, hardware and software and $99.00 is probably where it will be priced. I really don’t get into comparisons with other products, since other products don’t give me the freedom that I value.
DaveE (12:53:20) :
The openphone project. That would be my former company. The project
has three forks.
1. A fork that is taking the existing design and putting it into kiCAD.
2. A fork (FSO) that is doing anti vendor ports.
3. A fork ( qi hardware) that is starting with a simple HW platform and moving toward a phone.
We all work together, three different approaches on the same everest.
Jason (12:40:20) :
Jason. google steven mosher openmoko. hehe. who do you think named it the FreeRunner?
That said, FreeRunner was a fun project. On our blog you can read the lessons I think I learned while doing that. I liked QT. That’s why we put it on the phone.
I happen to know Moshpit (and Anthony) personally and have offered a tiny bit of help when asked on his new project.
Something that does not show up in the specs:
Every hot chick (including several strippers), who has the slightest knowledge of computers, that we have shown the prototype wants one.
Really, really, wants one.
They don’t suggest a change in specs. They just want it in pink.
Neat, but not for us ten-fingered typists. Nor are any of these gadgets with tiny keyboards. Wish someone would make a pocket-puter with an expandable keyboard. Maybe this will be it:
Proprietary is OK with me. I’ve been a die-hard Mac user since 1987.
/Mr Lynn
“VG (15:12:09) :
This is VIP The PM of Australia has put up a climate blog please use it especially Australians
http://www.pm.gov.au/PM_Connect/PMs_Blog/Climate_Change_Blog
THis will influence them over time
Anthony Is this worth a huge post here?”
There’s a huge volume of rot on the posts at that blog. Not surprising really.
I haven’t read through all the postings, so sorry if I repeat something. One application for a small handheld that I suspect would sell extremely well would be one that combines gps with the ability to draw on a map, particularly if it uses mapping software that allows for importing of all the standard map formats (shapefiles, geotiff, sid, etc).
With current handhelds, there are several problems preventing or limiting this use:
1. The screen is washed out in bright sun.
2. With Palm and Windows CE or mobile, software is limited, particularly when it comes to open source. There are good software offerings on both windows and linux, but in my opinion (and unfortunately) the best is windows and is not open source.
3. Battery life is short.
So one question I have would be, will this computer allow field mapping?
I will have to look into this. A friend and I are working on a project that this might be perfect for. We are developing a component analyzer that an average person could afford. I am developing the hardware, and my friend the software. He wants to develop it for a Linux platform, and I just want a good interface with effective communications with the ability to control the hardware.
Our first pass will be a single port analyzer with a frequency sweep from 10Hz to 10MHz. This could make the device very portable and affordable.
Thanks for the tip Anthony, I appreciate it.
Richard.
Anthony,
I have returned to this post from http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/8591.html where there is a comment on Microsoft’s new marketing slogan:
Windows: Life Without Walls
The writer’s son quipped “If you don’t have any walls, why do you need windows?”
Open hardware and open software — I can see the slogan now:
Life Without Walls: You Don’t Need Windows
Sounds like a neat device and I’ll probably be getting one as soon as they come out. I used to do a lot of digital design in my younger days but just don’t have the time now that I do medicine full time. This type of platform sounds ideal for physiologic data acquisition. I’ve got a number of microprocessor development systems that I’ve developed code for but they are very primitive doing just one task well and requiring more time to code the applications I want than I have right now.
One of the things I’ve been wanting to do is an ambulatory physiologic monitoring system and it sounds like this device should be able to sample 4 limb accelerometers and EKG in real time. There certainly is enough flash RAM storeage capacity available. 366 MHz is very fast for this type of application and more than adequate from what I need (I used to program data acquisition applications on a PDP-11/23 which seems positively sluggish in comparison to new machines).
The most frustrating thing I’ve run into with current computers is that real time operation is impossible. Under windoze the best one can do is +/- 20 msec and M$ provides absolutely no published means of tweaking the process time-slice quantum to be 1 msec. A finger tapping timing application I use that requires 1 msec accuracy runs fine on my Commodore 64 or a 680×0 SBC but don’t expect to get this type of accuracy from a 3 GHz PC running windoze. The nice thing about open source hardware and software is that one can just tweak a bit of code to get the functionality that I want; in windoze all I would need would be a means to hook into the keyboard IRQ and timestamp the keystroke using the TSC but this is not something M$ wants users to do. Incidentally, the C64 had open hardware and it was nice that my machine came with complete schematics to facilitate interfacing which I started doing right after I bought it in 1983.
If the cost of the unit is $99 then this is something I’d feel comfortable attaching to a patient and sending them home with it. I was considering developing my application on the Palm, but at ~$400 each they are expensive items to replace (and they no longer seem to be available). I’ve bookmarked the Qi site and will look forward to more details on the hardware and software.
Richard Sharpe (13:35:45) :
The last two wireless Win CE devices I suffered through were absolutely frustrating. Trying to run mission critical applications, they locked up at least four or five times a day and always at the worst possible time. I finally resolved that Win CE is not reliable enough (still isn’t) for industrial use.
Is the Qi a handheld platform that delivers MONO, 3GPP, and BT? At its current level of development, no. But Linux on a small extensible handheld device is appealing to say the least. I plan to keep an eye on the ongoing development of the Qi.
Phil M (15:08:44) :
Our design choices are driven by the willingness of suppliers to be open WRT
datasheets etc.
WRT ARM. Excellent choice and we’ve used it many times on many projects.
On the horizon with some recent licensing agreements we’ve seen, you can
expect the processor battle’s between Intel/ARM and MIPS to intensify.
WRT Ti OMAP. Again an excellent choice which I’ve used in past lives.
I think the most interesting thing is this: by opening the hardware spec and design files we want to move the world from a place where people suggest a better chip to one where they can actually go build the thing the suggest.
Basically, I tell people to put there volunteer effort where their mouth is.
Gridless analog devices: the pencil, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the voice.
Let me do one thank you for all the people who wish us luck. The germ of this idea, the idea of opening up the process to people outside the company came from one example I had seen of volunteer effort. From witnessing an army of davids who did something that was quite amazing in my eyes.
Can anyone guess what that volunteer effort was?
I can’t get my head around what its competitive advantage is Steve. Will it do all that my iPhone does or is an entirely different product?
Richard P (20:56:33) :
Sounds interesting. Head over the http://www.qi-hardware.com and join the developer list. You get what most people miss. Large CE companies will rarely address niche markets. By being open with the design we allow developers to roll there own special device.