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Hardware hacker Bunnie Huang is crowdfunding the Novena Open Laptop. In a blog post he said:
We're launching a crowdfunding campaign around our Novena open hardware computing platform. Originally, this started as a hobby project to build a computer just for me and xobs [Sean Cross, the other builder on the project] - something that we would use every day, easy to extend and to mod, our very own Swiss Army knife. I've posted here a couple of times about our experience building it, and it got a lot of interest. So by popular demand, we've prepared a crowdfunding offering and you can finally be a backer.
Does this open design seem expensive for an ARM quad-core?
Bunnie Studios is launching a crowdfunding campaign around their Novena open laptop:
Novena is a 1.2GHz, Freescale quad-core ARM architecture computer closely coupled with a Xilinx FPGA. It's designed for users who want to modify and extend their hardware: all the documentation for the PCBs are open and free to download, and it comes with a variety of features that facilitate rapid prototyping.
The machine comes with Debian pre-installed, and the hardware comes in 4 variants:
- "Just the board" ($500)
- "Desktop": comes with case and LCD screen (no keyb/mouse) ($1195)
- "Laptop": same as Desktop + battery and a 240 GiB SSD (no keyb/mouse) ($1995)
- "Heirloom laptop": same as Laptop but with a handmade wooden case. ($5000)
In January, Make magazine ran an article on this project.
(Score: 2) by elf on Sunday April 06 2014, @11:07AM
I'm a bit underwhelmed with this. I like open source, open hardware but the price points seem a little off for a big box with some circuit boards in. The top category of $5000 for a wooden laptop seems silly, who would ever want one of those? They aren't portable.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Bartman12345 on Sunday April 06 2014, @11:31AM
Sometimes when there is someone collecting donations on the street for a charity, they give each donor a little badge, or maybe even just a sticker, to wear in return. Do people donate to these charities to get themselves a little badge? No, their real reward is knowing they contributed to a worthy cause.
I think that the same sort of thinking is behind this campaign. No-one would buy a $5000 wooden laptop because they thought it was worth the money, the laptop is just like those badges, a token of appreciation for supporting open computer hardware.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @12:05PM
It looks like it is using a Thinkpad keyboard. If this motherboard will fit snug into an older Thinkpad chassis (maybe a T60 with 15" IPS display), there is certainly a viable market. Lenovo sure isn't doing any favors for Thinkpad loyalists.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:23PM
Frankly the whole thing sounds fishy when you consider that you can go to any number of Chinese manufacturers and get a laptop based on that board for a HELL of a lot cheaper. After all there are plenty of quad ARM tablets in the $100-$120 range right now so I have serious doubts that merely slapping a keyboard on it would raise the price to $2000.
So IMHO if you want something to tinker with that isn't gonna break the bank pick up a tablet from some place like Price Angels [priceangels.com] and get to tinkering. after all Android is (at least ATM) open and those Chinese companies I have NO doubt would be happy to send you source if asked, their business is selling hardware not software after all, and at those prices if you break it so what? These prices are just too damned high IMHO, which makes it smell funny to me. If they were using some exotic chips that would be one thing, but its ARM quads, not exactly a rare or expensive chip.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.