从利用 Arduino 、 Raspberry Pi 、 Beagleboard 等嵌入式系统开发平台进行之设计越来越多的趋势可以看出，工程师们确实喜欢这样的“开源硬件(open-source hardware)”方案；这种平台不但能支持个人兴趣式的设计案，也能让商用产品的电路板设计被重新利用。有许多工程师会在闲暇之余透过网络上的协作专 案以及建立活跃的线上社群，在开源硬件设计领域投入不少时间；但目前还不确定这类活动是否会扩展到商业市场。
在近日于美国硅谷举行的 DESIGN West 大会期间，参与一场由EETimes美国版总编辑Alex Wolfe主持的座谈专家们认为，目前开源硬件设计缺乏清晰的商业模式与可依靠的资源；某些设计案其实是靠商业团体捐赠工程师的时间来完成的。
采 用由博通(Broadcom)提供之ARM11核心系统芯片的 Raspberry Pi 低价单板计算机，问世没多久就在出货量方面取得惊人的成功；但尚不清楚的是，这种开发板是如何广泛地达成了其希望教导年轻工程师为嵌入式系统编写程序的原始 抱负，或是它在商用嵌入式系统设计上被用来当做功能组件的接受度是如何。
来自英国的博通资深首席工程师暨 Raspberry-Pi计算机开发板原型架构开发者 Gert Van Loo 表示，使用者对于Raspberry Pi基金会能否保证5~10年供应期的疑虑，是阻碍该平台商用化的一大因素。而他也表示，Raspberry Pi基金会正在尽最大的努力做出保证。
而 其它与会专家也表示，开源硬件平台商用化的另一个阻碍，是其授权条款(license terms)的内容会比开放性软件复杂许多；来自德州仪器(TI)的软件架构经理暨BeagleBoard.org 共同创办人Jason Kridner指出：“复制位(bit)很便宜，但要复制原子(atom)就会很贵。”
SparkFun Electronics工程项目经理Chris Taylor则指出，要为开源硬件拟定统一的授权条款会比开放性软件困难许多； SparkFun 是一家针对那些开源硬件创造者(maker)社群的线上零组件供货商，Taylor表示：“开源硬件协会(The Open-Source Hardware Association)仍在试图厘清该如何建立授权模式，虽然一切都还未定案，但协会已经与(另一个组织) Creative Commons 共同合作讨论这个议题。”
Taylor表示，有一部分人士认为共通的开源硬件授权条款是可 以被打造出来的，但也有另一部份人士认为不可行；而他个人则是认为，建立单一的开源硬件授权环境不但不可能、也没必要，而且已经有很多种类的授权模式已 经被尝试过：“开源硬件是在这样的混乱中诞生，没有人曾经认同过任何一种授权模式。”
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第2页：一个共同合作、分享设计的社群
第3页：最后是否仍得靠金钱来驱动一切？
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一个共同合作、分享设计的社群
开源硬件热潮的基础动力，来自于那些不希望点子与人重复的工程师与创造者们；Taylor表示，他们也通常很乐意透过线上论坛分享彼此的设计成果、设计诀窍与快捷方式，因此那些时常注意相关信息的跟进者就能更容易地做出更复杂的东西。
打造出分装饮料机器人的 Party Robotics ，就是先后采用Arduino与Raspberry Pi平台；该公司除了创办人的投资，也透过Kickstarter网站募资，是一家颇具开源精神的企业。也参与了座谈会的Party Robotics共同创办人Pierre Michael表示：“不必重头打造硬件是一大优势，这也是为什么我们会将设计成果分享给开源社群，就是希望能激发出更酷的设计。”
Michael也提到了他们将设计布局 EDA 工具由Altium换成Eagle：“你需要用开源工具来设计开放性产品。”不过他却立刻被TI的Kridner吐槽，说Eagle PCB工具并非开放源码，只不过是一种恰好免费提供的EDA程序。
在被问到Party Robotics是否能完全以开源硬件在市场上“走跳”时，Michael也坦承：“我们现在要告诉你，如果想赚钱，就得把你的IP锁好。”而座谈会主持人Wolfe提出，在开放源码软件领域，有许多公司都因为完全免费的Linux以及相关社群的支持，而在业务发展上非常成功──难道在硬件领域不行吗？
对 此博通的Van Loo表示，开源软件领域有许多工程师会积极贡献自己的成果，以换取在GPL授权软件清单上的信用度；但遗憾的是，在硬件领域没有类似的评量标准，能让 那些希望知道他的设计是否会被人接受以及重复使用的工程师们感到满足。不过他也表示，尽管如此，硬件设计工程师们还是准备将他们的设计成果开放，因为他们 认为：“工程本身就是一个报酬丰厚的创新职业。”
但Van Loo并没有明说的是，工程设计案通常受到契约条款约束，受雇员工在其中得屈服于紧抓着那些权利不放的雇主所声明的版权与智能财产权。Raspberry Pi能因“教育”知名受到豁免，其它由芯片厂商所催生的开放性平台则是为了鼓励采用同样他们家硬件的开发设计，例如TI的Beagleboard。
无论如何，Party Robotics 的Michael认为，采用开源硬件还是能带来许多公众利益，而为Raspberry Pi 与Arduino创造外加的电路板，将反过来帮助于这些平台的销售：“线上论坛也是其生态系统的一部分，能协助催生有趣的成品。”
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第3页：最后是否仍得靠金钱来驱动一切？
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• Facebook将推出定制智能手机，HTC成首家合作伙伴
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• 赛灵思开源硬件与嵌入式大赛创意纷呈Yq1esmc
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有限度的成功？
座谈会主持人Wolfe又提了个问题：“我虽然对于开源硬件世界洋溢的热情以及利他主义印象深刻，但我们无法忽视的现实是，最后是否仍得靠金钱来驱动一切？”
Michael 表示，也许开源硬件能循着开放性软件那样的方式跃居主流；但他的公司可能还是得在将较旧的设计推向开放性领域的同时，也加速将最新的设计推向商业市场。 Kridner也坦承市场动力将扮演一个角色，不过当各家公司将低价系统推向市场，对工程师与创造者来说也同样有利。
与会专家都同意，开放性合作设计案能让工程师们能发挥创意，而这也是他们选择这份职业的主要动机；Kridner表示：“TI让我能用大多数的时间在Beagleboard上工作，这真的很棒，它们两者(工作与兴趣)之间没有冲突。”
SparkFun 的Taylor则指出：“我们必须被视为开放源码社群的一员，不然我们的信用可能会化为乌有。”针对开源硬件的商业永续性，Van Loo的看法是：“开源软件成功了，而且行之多年，甚至有些人还不知道为什么。”
但Van Loo也表示，因为有制造与交货方面的成本，开源硬件的状况会有一些不同：“发展开源硬件需要资金，为了永续发展，你必须从中赚到钱；也许我们得为40%的毛利而奋斗，至少人们会因此了解，一家公司的CEO并不能让自己的荷包满满或是住在私人小岛上。”
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：DESIGN West: Open source hardware searching for business model，by Peter Clarke
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• 赛灵思开源硬件与嵌入式大赛创意纷呈Yq1esmc
{pagination}
DESIGN West: Open source hardware searching for business model
Peter Clarke
The motivations are diverse and the projects are exciting, but the long-term impact remains questionable. SAN JOSE, Calif. – There's no doubt that engineers like the idea of open-source hardware. There are an increasing number of open-source hardware board designs – Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beagleboard and many others – that enable hobbyist projects and the reuse of board designs in commercial products. And many engineers are putting a lot of time into enabling these movements via collaborative work online and through the creation of vibrant online communities.
What is less clear is whether such movements will scale into the commercial world. There is a lack of clear business model and dependence, in some cases, on the donation of engineers' time by commercial organizations. That was one of the conclusions from a panel discussion moderated by EE Times editor-in-chief Alex Wolfe.
Over its short life the Raspberry Pi low-cost single-board computer, based on an ARM11-based system-chip from Broadcom, has been a phenomenal success in terms of shipments. But what remains unclear is how widely the board is fulfilling its original brief of teaching young people how to program or is being adopted as a building block in commercial embedded equipment designs.
Gert Van Loo, senior principal engineer with Broadcom Corp. in Cambridge, England, and architect of the prototype of the Raspberry-Pi computer board, said that commercial uptake has been gated by considerations of whether the Raspberry Pi Foundation can guarantee to be able to supply boards in five or ten years time. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is doing its best to make those assurances, he said.
Another road-block is the case that writing the license terms for open-source hardware is complex compared with open-source software, the panelists offered. Jason Kridner, software architecture manager with Texas Instruments and co-founder of BeagleBoard.org, commented: "It is cheap to replicate bits but it is expensive to replicate atoms."
Chris Taylor, engineering project manager with SparkFun Electronics (Boulder, Colorado), said that there are issues that make convergence on a unified open-source license for hardware much harder than it has been for the open-source software movement. SparkFun is an online vendor of components for the "maker" community. "The Open-Source Hardware Association is still trying to figure out how that [license terms] will play. A hardware license is nebulous but there is work with Creative Commons [organization]," Taylor said. One camp thinks a universal license can be created; another camp doesn't, he added.
Taylor made his position clear when he said the creation of a single licensing environment for OSH is neither likely nor necessary and that many types of license would be tried. "OSH is built on that chaos. No one is ever going to agree on one license," he said.
Click on image to enlarge.
From left to right: Alex Wolfe, editor-in-chief of EE Times, moderates panelists Jason Kridner, software architecture manager at Texas Instruments; Chris Taylor, engineering project manager at SparkFun Electronics; Pierre Michael, co-founder of Party Robotics; and Gert Van Loo, senior principal engineer with Broadcom Corp.
Working collaboratively, sharing designs
The fundamental driver is that makers and engineers do not want to re-invent the wheel and are often happy to share designs, design tips, shortcuts in online forums so that those that follow them can make more complex things more easily, he said.
The drinks-dispensing robot company Party Robotics is based on the use of Arduino and then Raspberry Pi boards. The company has been funded by the founders and Kickstarter and has an open-source ethos. Panelist and co-founder of Party Robotics, said: "Not having to create hardware was a huge benefit. That is why we fold our designs back [in the open-source community] to allow even cooler things."
Michael also made the point that he switched EDA tools for design lay-out from Altium to Eagle. "You should use open-source tools to make open-source products," Michael said. However, he was immediately challenged by Kridner who pointed out that Eagle PCB is not open-source but is an EDA program that happens to be available in a free version.
But when asked if Party Robotics could go to market with a totally open-source hardware philosophy Michael conceded: "Now we are being told you got to lock down your IP if you are going to make money."
Wolfe drew comparisons with the open-source software domain where many companies do successfully ply their trade based on support for open-source and freely available Linux distributions.
Van Loo made the point that in the case of open source software a lot of engineers are motivated to contribute their efforts in return for credit in a GPL listing. Unfortunately there is no such equivalent in hardware and engineers sometimes have to be satisfied with knowing they designed something and accept that it will be picked up and reused by others. Nonetheless he said that hardware engineers are still prepared to put their design work in the open-source domain because "engineering is one the best-paid creative jobs out there."
What Van Loo did not address explicitly is that engineering is usually done under contractural terms where the employee surrenders copyright and intellectual property rights to an employer who then holds those rights closely. In the case of Raspberry Pi there is an educational remit and in other cases open-source boards are enabled by chip vendors who want to encourage developments around their hardware. In the case of the beagleboard it is produced by Texas Instruments.
Nonetheless a lot of public good will comes from using open-source hardware said Pierre Michael. And the creation of add-on boards to Raspberry Pi and Arduino, in turn, helps sell more Raspberry Pi and Ardiuno boards, he said. "The online forum is part of the ecosystem and helps interesting things get made."
Success without excess?
"I can't help but be impressed at the passion and altruism being displayed but are we glossing over the fact that money drives everything in the end?" asked Wolfe.
Pierre Michael said that there could be ways to help open-source hardware go mainstream as open-source software has done. His company might be able to charge commercially for the latest revs of its designs while putting previous revs into the open-source domain, he said.
Kridner acknowledged that market forces do play a part but where companies are prepared to put out low-cost boards there is a win for makers and engineers alike. The panelists all agreed that work on open-source collaborative projects allowed engineers to be creative, which is often the main motivation for joining the profession. "TI allows me to work on Beagleboard most of my time which is great. They don't conflict."
Chris Taylor of SparkFun said: "We have to be viewed as part of the open-source community or our credibility would be burned."
When pushed on the commercial sustainability of open-source hardware Gert Van Loo responded by saying: "Open-source software works. It has been working for years even though some people don't understand how."
But he also acknowledged that, because of the costs of manufacture and delivery, open-source hardware is a different case. "OSH is going to need money and you need to make money out of it to be sustainable. But maybe we are fighting things like 40 percent profit margins. At least people know that a CEO is not going fill his pockets and go live on an island."
责编：Quentin
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