Hello everyone,
I’ve been wondering, why has no one built an entirely free (as in freedom) computer yet? For humans to be unable to share each other’s knowledge to build one of the most important technologies ever created for society, how is it that we have yet to have full knowledge about how our systems operate?
I get that companies are basically the ones to blame, and I know there are alternatives like the Talos II by Raptor Computing, but still, how do we not have publicly available full schematics for just one modern computer? I’m talking down to firmware-level stuff like proprietary ECs, microcode, hard drive/SSD firmware, network controllers, etc. How do we not have a fully open system yet?
Just to be clear how far behind the “hobby” microchip scene is, not to take anything away from the accomplishment, but the chip he made can’t do 1 + 1 yet. Don’t get the wrong idea from only reading the article title. No one is making pi chips in their garage.
No one claimed they’re making pi chips in their garage, it’s a modest start towards open-source hardware. One guy in a garage doing what thousands of skilled engineers and scientists devoted careers to make in expensive labs.