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mafm [soylentnews.org] writes:

NOTE FOR EDITORS: submitting again because I did as anonymous user the first time, and didn't get the reason for rejection since I failed to provide an e-mail. I am not sure if it was rejected for some reason that can be amended, or if the story was rejected because of some policy (e.g. "we do not accept links to crowdfunding sites").
 
I promise, if it's rejected I will not insist, and sorry for the inconvenience.
 
I think that this campaign (in which I have no financial interest) is interesting because it strives to provide hardware that can be used without binary blobs, because the cpu-cards attempt to be an standard that can be used in different devices, most of the hardware (housing) can be reused by swapping CPU cards (aking to upgrading the motherboard+CPU of a desktop, which is not common in laptop/mobile devices), and you can e.g. 3D-print your own laptop housing and reprint parts if they break.
 
So I think that, overall, the whole approach is quite novel and it sets this project apart from others providing just another SBC -- it's more like Google's Project Ara combined with Purism Librem laptops.
(end of NOTE FOR EDITORS)
 
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The goal of the EOMA (Embedded Open Modular Architecture) project is to introduce the idea of being ethically responsible about both the ecological and the financial resources required to design, manufacture, acquire and maintain our personal computing devices. The EOMA68 standard [elinux.org] is a freely-accessible, royalty-free, unencumbered hardware standard formulated and tested over the last five years around the ultra-simple philosophy of “just plug it in: it will work”.

With devices built following this standard, one can upgrade the CPU-card (consisting of CPU, RAM and some local storage) of a device while keeping the same housing (e.g. laptop). One can also use the CPU-card in different devices (e.g. unplug CPU-card from laptop, plug into desktop); or use a replaced/discarded CPU-card from a laptop for NAS storage or a micro-server. There are housings currently available for a laptop (can be 3D-printed in full, or in part to replace parts that break) and a micro-desktop; and there are plans for others like routers or tablets in the future.

There are multiple articles talking about this project and analyzing the hardware, for example from ThinkPenguin [thinkpenguin.com], CNXSoft [cnx-software.com] or EngadgetNG [engadgetng.com]. There is also a recent live-streamed video [crowdsupply.com] introducing the project.

At the moment there is an ongoing EOMA68 Crowd-funding campaign [crowdsupply.com] launched last month that has just reached $50,000 (33% of the goal) and so far has 541 backers with almost a month still to go.

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Original Submission