Crowd Supply (previously) is an extremely effective platform for funding open source hardware development, boasting twice the success-rate of Kickstarter and Indiegogo; it is also the birthplace of the proclamation of user rights, an outstanding document that lays out the rights of users to explore their hardware, use it independent of any subscription, use it with any other service or hardware, use it indefinitely without fear of remote kill-switching, to transfer it to others, to freely discuss it, to use it privately, and to be informed of security issues.
Two new Crowd Supply projects highlight the role of the proclamation in promising us new, better, more open and more free systems on which to build our information age.
The first is Open V, “The World’s First Open Source RISC-V-based 32-bit μC”:
The OnChip Open-V microcontroller is a completely free (as in freedom) and open source 32-bit microcontroller based on the RISC-V architecture. The Open-V has a host of built-in peripherals you’d expect of any modern microcontroller and was designed to compete with the capabilities of ARM M0-based microcontrollers. This crowdfunding campaign will bring the Open-V into mass production and make it widely available to anyone. If you love hacking on embedded controllers, breaking down closed-source barriers, having the freedom to learn how things work even down to the transistor level, or have dreamed of spinning your own silicon, then this campaign is for you and we need your help!
The second is the Talos Secure Workstation, “The world’s first ATX-compatible, workstation-class mainboard for the IBM POWER8 processor”:
Talos™ is a state-of-the-art mainboard designed for the new IBM POWER8 architecture. It is the first and only high performance computer with absolutely no proprietary software or firmware blobs. With its ATX form factor, Talos™ brings a level of performance to the workstation realm usually found in dedicated servers and a level of freedom and user control long extinct in modern hardware. In addition to its onboard, open-toolchain FPGAs, Talos™ easily and tightly interfaces with GPUs, FPGAs, and custom hardware.
Proclamation of User Rights [Crowdsupply]
Open V [Crowdsupply]
Talos Secure Workstation [Crowdsupply]