Yochai Benkler: Open-source economics via postscarcityorbust
Posts tagged "open source"
Exciting things are happening for Protei, an amazing open hardware oil spill cleaning Sailing Robot Drone by Cesar Harada, which was funded through Kickstarter. The team in Rotterdam are nearing completion on their prototype build and getting ready for test.
The project is amazing and, from working with Cesar and the team, I know that those involved in this effort are top notch. The technology they are working on will always be open source and available for other uses (one of which I am working with them on - a side project of mine) with no interest in profiting off environmental remediation.
You can learn more here and here, or this Q&A w/ Cesar.
The Papilio FPGA Shield (P/Shield) is the next, evolutionary step for the family of easy to use and Open Source Papilio FPGA boards. The P/Shield builds on the proven Papilio One design and packs in more I/O, speedy SRAM, and the ever popular Arduino footprint. When paired with an Arduino, the ease of the Arduino and the power of an FPGA form a potent combination that allows makers of all skill levels to create things only imagined before. When used without an Arduino, the P/Shield continues the strong Papilio tradition as a beginner friendly FPGA board with unlimited potential for expansion and growth. Finally, users of all skill levels will appreciate the Arduino inspired FPGA community at Papilio.cc. Experts and beginners alike can come together to discover answers to questions, to share tutorials, and to share their work on the Papilio Playground.
Village Telco project, open source mesh based telephony via disruptism
For the good of all of us: CERN launches open source hardware effort
Open source software is used extensively by CERN, the particle physics lab behind the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. In fact, the organization even maintains its very own Linux distribution—based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux—called Scientific Linux CERN. Inspired by the productivity of Linux development, a group of CERN engineers have decided to bring the advantages of the open source software development model to the world of hardware.
CERN has launched a new community-centric effort called the Open Hardware Repository (OHR) with the aim of encouraging collaborative electronics design. CERN has also developed a new license, called the Open Hardware License (OHL), to govern the distribution of open hardware designs.
Open Source FGPA Bitcoin Miner
Just released was the Open Source FPGA Bitcoin Miner software. This miner allows bitcoins to be mined using a commercially available FPGA board.
FPGA boards consume much less electricity compared to GPUs for the hashing work performed when mining bitcoins.
FGPAs might have a MHash/J performance level around 20 or more whereas the most efficient GPUs are closer to about 2 MHash/J.
There are fears that FPGA mining will force miners using GPUs today to either pivot and switch to FPGA mining for their operations or to abandon mining completely when the efficiency disparity makes GPU mining uncompetitive.
Those fears are likely unwarranted just yet though. The cost of the equipment and not the cost of electricity continues to be the primary concern affecting miner’s decision on whether or not to add capacity.
Using commercially available FPGA boards to attain a certain level of hashing can require investment several times that required for a GPU-based equivalent.
Though a less costly FPGA board designed specifically for bitcoin could be built, there are no sources for such a product yet — at least not commercially.
GPU Mining Still Profitable And Still Growing
It will likely be many months yet before the FPGA would even start to displace the GPU as the technology responsible for significant increases to the mining difficulty measure.
GPU miners have been able to reach the breakeven point, on a per-dollar invested basis, within a couple months after bringing new capacity online. Thereafter a decent profit continues to be returned though the profitability level can decline steadily with each subsequent increase in difficulty when there is no matching increase in the bitcoin exchange rate as well.
The Bitcoin network has continued to see capacity come online at an unprecedented and torrid pace — over 30 GHash/s of capacity was added each day during the most recent difficulty adjustment period, for example.
Because of the recent run-up in the bitcoin exchange rate mining is generally considered to be very profitable at the present time. It will remain highly profitable until either the exchange rate drops or the difficulty level increases significantly as the result of additional mining capacity being procured and brought online by miners seeking those profits.
With so many miners active now, the global supply of GPU hardware has become constrained. Even used GPUs found on eBay, for example, are becoming difficult to find. If the now-discontinued ATI HD 5870s and HD 5970s were still sold, or AMD were able to keep up with demand for the AMD HD 6990s, the difficulty increases would likely be even greater than what is being seen now.
FPGA’s Edge
Even though the FGPA solution is extremely expensive relative to its GPU equivalent, FPGAs are widely available commercially. If the bitcoin exchange rate were to spike further, FPGA mining may be about the only option for being able to add any significant amount of mining capacity.
The higher power efficiency that an FPGA provides is not just a factor for comparing the cost of electricity to mine but also when other factors are considered.
The total amount of electricity consumed by a miner with a GPU mining rig or two will add up quickly. Individual miners are already popping breakers after exceeding limits on the amount of current available from household circuits used when mining with multiple GPUs in a single rig even. Those with multiple rigs are finding limits to the amount of electricity fed to the property as well.
When power consumption limits are a constraint, then the FPGA with its significantly higher power efficiency might be the only method to increase mining hashing capacity.
Residential electric rates are often tiered to encourage conservation. As a result the incremental rate for mining starts at the most expensive tier for the household. Individuals mining from their homes should be the biggest beneficiaries from having an efficient FPGA alternative but the equipment’s high cost will remain a major limiting factor, as will the technical skill level necessary for FPGA mining.
Further out, if the exchange value of bitcoin rises much further the numbers begin to approach the level where building and producing an ASIC design might become feasible.
If or when that happens, then the clock counting the days left for GPU mining can start ticking.
Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware’s source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format for making modifications to it. Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware. Open source hardware gives people the freedom to control their technology while sharing knowledge and encouraging commerce through the open exchange of designs.
Not directly CNC related — but interesting in the bigger open source / DIY Hacking scheme of things.
fragmentedsector: Sony vs Microsoft: Engaging the Hacker Community
I believe, in many respects, that most companies do a piss poor job of handling the hacker community. When hackers get involved with technology, they begin to use products differently than their original intended use. Normally they push the product to do far more than what was originally designed for, but in order to do this they break a few mechanics and open things up that were closed down.
I can understand why a company would be upset about tampering with their product, but given todays society and the way the world works, bad public relations (PR) is really not worth the hassle. If only Sony agreed with me…
Public hacker George Hotz (aka geohot) is being sued right now by Sony for his recent hacks on the PS3. Geohot was successful in opening up the PS3 and making it play homebrew games and do PS2 emulation. He also released the Metldr key for the PS3, the metldr key cannot be updated, so the PS3 is basically hacked for good. Sony didn’t like this at all, and is now suing geohot. It’s a shame too, this terrific hacker showed interest in working for a company like Sony and this is how they react to his skill. Geohot has gone on the offensive, making a rap song against Sony and even asking for money for lawyers against the titans (I’ll probably be donating to the cause).
Microsoft, surprisingly has taken a much different stance on the matter. With the XBox 360 Kinect, Microsoft has been surprisingly accepting of the hacker community, releasing the software development kit (SDK) within the coming week. Originally it was thought that Microsoft would lock down the device, but it seems they are happy with the recent stunts of playing Angry Birds and World of Warcraft.
As progress in today’s modern world, I feel it is necessary to acknowledge the power of the hacker community and the loyalists that are among them. Geohot could have been a prized gem for Sony, but this is what happens when companies make bad decisions, like threatening to ban all users of the exploits Geohot found and what not. It’s a shame that more companies aren’t open to the idea of the hacker community taking interest in their products.
Machines making machines meets networked intelligence.
A tumblr dedicated to the technique, products, and goals of modern making/hacking/engineering.
alexanderpf.com
A tumblr dedicated to the technique, products, and goals of modern making/hacking/engineering.
alexanderpf.com
