Open Source Hardware Initiative from CERN

Until recently, all attempts in the field of Open Source Hardware came either from amateurs who couldn’t wait to make various equipment and build devices with their own hands, or from individual professionals who do not joke, but still work for the largest corporations, helping them crowds out someone's thoughts into your own commercial developments. It is possible that the time has come to change the settled state of affairs, since from overseas, news begins to come that the hardware world is experiencing the same boom as the software world. In addition, we know that “free” is better by definition than “proprietary”.

For this or some other reason, scientists and researchers from CERN , an organization whose most famous handiwork is the Large Hadron Collider ( LHC ), joined this movement. It is hardly a secret for anyone that open source software is very widely used in this organization, in truth, they even have their own Linux distribution ( Scientific Linux CERN ), based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Inspired by the advantages of free development, the scientists decided to try to use the same model to develop iron, mainly for complex systems, like the same Collider.

Of course, it’s impossible to develop anything without having an interested community - that is why the Open Hardware Repository was created, with the help of which various enthusiasts will be able to follow the development and take part in it. Along with the repository, the CERN specialists also wrote the text of the new license responsible for the distribution of such hardware: Open Hardware License ( OHL ).
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This is what one of CERN engineers, the creator of the repository Javier Serrano, says about this: “For us, the desire for open equipment is motivated in many ways by envy of colleagues who develop drivers for Linux devices - they are part of a huge community of people who share their own knowledge and time in order to eventually build the best operating system. We thought that there was not a single reason why hardware development should be somewhat different. ”

Of course, CERN experts were not pioneers in this area, not in all. So, the first open hardware license was created before them, in 2007 by a group called Tucson Amateur Packet Radio ( TAPR ). The two licenses (OHL and TAPR) are in no way related, although they pursue similar goals. But besides initiatives from various communities, history knows examples when companies covered their own equipment with open licenses, such as the case when SUN transferred the design of the UltraSPARC microprocessor under the terms of the GPL. Although it is rather an exception to the rule.

OHR (repository) has already developed some period of time before they wrote about it in the CERN Courier magazine - and therefore today it hosts a number of projects, including special ones, which appeared as a result of the development of the Collider due to the specific requirements imposed on equipment.

One of these projects is White Rabbit , whose members build a specialized network switch for synchronizing and transmitting data in complex control systems. Initially, this is a joint development of CERN and FAIR (Facility For Antiproton and Ion Research - laboratory of the Institute of Heavy Ions, Germany), but if you look at the list of participants, you will see that it is quite large (it is supervised by the already mentioned Mr. Serrano and Mr. Mr. Eric Van Der Bizh), because European research laboratories are interested in using White Rabbit in their own experiments.

Technical details, research documents and code related to the development of this system can all be downloaded from the OHR version control system. A separate subproject is hosting the software part of the development , designed to eventually unite with the iron in order to make this switch work.

As for the license, its text and basic principles were partially taken from the GNU GPL, and the final text was written by lawyers from the same CERN (Knowledge and Technology Transfer Group). The original version was released in March, but the current version (1.1) refers to the last week. Freedom to study, change, distribution and production, with some restrictions, or rather even fixing, documentation is assumed - this means that everyone who modifies or in any other way modifies the design of the device will have to share their work with the rest of the community.

I thought for a long time how to finish this note, and as a result I came up with an enchanting and not so far from the truth slogan that I propose to adopt for people promoting the similar Open Source Hardware: “Collect a piece of the Collider to your home!”

CernCourier via ArsTechnica