Qi Hardware

Last updated
Qi Hardware Inc.
Company type Public
Industry
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
Number of locations
 San Francisco, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei
Area served
Worldwide
Products

Qi Hardware is an organization which produces copyleft hardware and software, in an attempt to apply the Free Software Foundation's GNU GPL concept of copylefting software to the hardware layer by using the CC BY-SA license for schematics, bill of materials and PCB layout data. The project has been both a community of popular open hardware websites and a company, founded by Steve Mosher, Jon Phillips, Wolfgang Spraul and Yi Zhang, that makes hardware products. [1] [2] [3] Formed from the now defunct Openmoko project, [2] key members went on to form Qi Hardware Inc. and Sharism At Work Ltd. Thus far, the project has released the Ben Nanonote, [4] [5] [6] [7] the Milkymist One, [8] and the Ben WPAN wireless project [9] [10] to create a copyleft wireless platform. The examples of Qi hardware projects are the Ben NanoNote pocket computer, Elphel 353 video camera and Milkymist One video synthesizer.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben NanoNote</span>

The Ben NanoNote is a pocket computer using the Linux-based OpenWrt operating system. An open-source hardware device developed by Qi Hardware, it has been called possibly "the world's smallest Linux laptop for the traditional definition of the word.". In addition, the Ben NanoNote is noteworthy for being one of the few devices on the market running entirely on copyleft hardware.

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LibreCMC is a Linux-libre distribution for computers with minimal resources, such as the Ben NanoNote, ath9k-based Wi-Fi routers, and other hardware with emphasis on free software. Based on OpenWrt, the project's goal is to aim for compliance with the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines and ensure that the project continues to meet these requirements set forth by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). LibreCMC does not support ac or ax due to a lack of free chipsets.

References

  1. ↑ Eric Brown (Mar 16, 2010). "Hackable Linux clamshell goes on sale for $99". Linux Devices. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved Feb 17, 2022.
  2. 1 2 Pam Derringer (2009-07-01). "Openomoko Layoffs Lead to New Open Hardware Venture". linux.com. Archived from the original on 2022-02-18. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  3. ↑ "Milkymist One video synthesizer shown at 6th Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal". Qi Hardware. May 13, 2011. Archived from the original on June 23, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  4. ↑ Gareth Halfacree (2010-03-16). "Qi Hardware launches NanoNote". Bit-tech. Archived from the original on 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
  5. ↑ Donald Melanson (2010-03-15). "Qi Hardware's tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping". Bit-tech. Archived from the original on 2011-08-22. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
  6. ↑ David Murphy (2010-06-05). "Qi Hardware Launches Open-Source Computer". PCMag. Archived from the original on 2011-09-21. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
  7. ↑ rg (2010-03-17). "Qi Hardware Ben NanoNote". linux.com. Archived from the original on 2011-08-30. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
  8. ↑ Ray, Bill. "Open-source hardware group puts out vid system-on-a-chip". The Register . Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  9. ↑ Terrence O'Brien (2011-06-17). "Qi-Hardware debuts free, open source wireless solution, not a threat to WiFi". Engadget. Archived from the original on 2011-06-20. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
  10. ↑ Jake (2011-06-16). "Phillips: Qi Hardware Releases Free Wireless Hardware". LWN.net. Archived from the original on 2011-06-21. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
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