Whither open hardware ? (was Re: Quick e-mail poll: Still using your Freerunner?)

[Werner Almesberger]

Laszlo KREKACS wrote:
> Is it unsuitable for a phone because of power inefficiency?
> Can be the "ARM Cortex-A8 600Mhz" used in a future phone?

There are many component choices for future phones. Things to consider
when choosing chips include:

- do they fit the intended purpose ?
- are they open enough for our purposes ?
- are they available (to us) ?
- will they be available as long as we need them ?
- are they affordable ?
- what are the integration costs ?
- what are the opportunity costs ?
- do they work as intended ?
- how do they fit our technical capabilities ?
- what legal exposures do they cause ?

Of course, you don't see companies advertize much on the issues listed
above. Quite to the contrary - how often does one see a feature
presented as "patented proprietary technology" as if this was a good
thing ?

- Werner