Open hardware

What does /tech/ think about open hardware? Do you take part on any open hardware projects? Any projects you like or support?

open hardware is a meme, lain. You can't escape the corporate overlords.

>open hardware EE student here To be honest, you never really know what is inside hardware you put in your circuitry. You just get a datasheet from manufacturer that says "this is how it behaves". Analogy for software would be easy, just looking at assembly code would give you some understandings of inner workings. In electronics you need an electronic microscope, which isn't as easy. This is why I fear hardware backdoors and see the free and open source software as ultimately futile attempts. Until we have a group of people knights that own chip manufacturing facilities to make a "open hardware" psyche processor then we can never be 100% certain of privacy and security.

>>415 Can you audit hardware with a microscope? I am interested in open hardware for security and the like and I know the situation seems really hopeless right now unless we do something. i really want to start a company to develope open hardware but making it profitable and staying ethical will be very hard.

>>438 there are some really expensive microscopes that can see in small um lengths, but seeing how everything is in dozen of nm's todays it's useless. I have seen a guy make electron microscope himself on youtube. Instead of making a company to develope open hardware, try doing a open donation style thing for auditing processors already on the market. that's how you put your foot in the door, and then probably add to it and make a open hardware company.

Actually, you can read most chips "codes" by etching them away layer by layer, taking photos with a normal microscope and then processing photos with some software. See Chris Gerlinsky's talk "How Do I Crack Satellite and Cable Pay TV?" on 33c3.

>>415 I completely agree with this post. I hope that sometime soon some such group will come forth though, I don't think it's at all impossible.

>>404 Who is this cutie pie? The EOMA68 is one free libre hardware project I'm supporting on crowdsupply. I like how forthcoming the dev is being about the whole process and any snags he's coming into. It's refreshing to see cheap and ethical hardware being so meticulously assembled and tested for a simple user like me.

>>452 Eris from Olympus Overdrive, a Homestuck clone that ended because the creator got bored.

It's very important, as software is only as free as the hardware it runs on. Some day in the future, I hope hardware auditing labs exist, to prove that certain manufacturers do produce their stuff the way they say they do in their open source documentation.

>>453 Hail Eris!

>>466 My pineal gland would like to tell you "ALL HAIL DISCORDIA", sir.

>>466 >>476 Don't get behind it, OO was very mediocre.

>>463 >I hope hardware auditing labs exist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_regress

>>533 There's always a point where you have to trust someone who isn't yourself, even for software. Even if you compile all your own software, you have to trust your compiler and the compiler that compiled it. You have to trust the people who developed your OS and compiler. You have to trust they weren't modified on the way to your house. All one can do is have trustworthy people in multiple labs around the world.

>>546 You could learn an assembly language and write your own OS and compiler, but we all know nobody here is going to do that.

>>547 You could, but then you'd have to trust the person who manufactured your hardware, that it doesn't have firmware and hardware trojans.

>>548 What to do when you don't feel like you can do that is what this thread is about.

>>491 it isn't really about the webcomic, it's about the design