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"Carlos Betancourt, a marketing engineer for TI's Sitara processors, described BeagleBone Black as "truly" open source. He noted that open source software is no

"Carlos Betancourt, a marketing engineer for TI's Sitara processors, described BeagleBone Black as "truly" open source. He noted that open source software is not always as open as it claims to be. "When it comes to hardware, open source means you can buy all these chips and use them for your own design," Betancourt said. " I'm sorry, but that is NOT open source "when it comes to hardware". It's very cool, it's open source when it comes to software, but open source hardware is a completely different kettle of beagles, and I find it annoying that TI spokespeople would be trying to claim as much. It makes us "hackers" dis-trusting and TI look disengenuous. Still think it's awesome! Just wish TI marketing would stop hitching a free ride. EDIT: What is a "marketing engineer"?

tmuir 14y ago
The schematics, bill of materials, and PCB layout files are freely available here: http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack#Hardware_Files http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack... What more do you want?
- joezydeco 14y ago
  I think he wants masks for every chip, microcode, design files, free licensing from ARM, and access to the TI fab so he can make his own chips. I don't think people realize how much stuff is in these chips and how much work and NRE it takes to make something like a $10 SoC happen. It's nice to see the advantages of scale being useful and -yay- we all get cheap XBMC players, but don't take it for granted.
joezydeco 14y ago
You realize the Beagle project is developed by TI, right? I think their marketing has been just superb on this platform, and it's a huge turnaround from the days of $4,000 EVKs for their chips.
- Intermernet 14y ago
  Their marketing has, indeed been superb. My issue is with the use of the term open source with regards to hardware that seems not to be. Sorry, it's really just a semantic point, but I find that marketing departments are all too aware of semantics and take advantage of them all the time. My definition of open source hardware is nicely outlined at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware . Once again, I think the project is awesome, I think the marketing, despite good, is, well, marketing.

tmuir 14y ago

The schematics, bill of materials, and PCB layout files are freely available here: http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack#Hardware_Files http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack... What more do you want?

joezydeco 14y ago
I think he wants masks for every chip, microcode, design files, free licensing from ARM, and access to the TI fab so he can make his own chips. I don't think people realize how much stuff is in these chips and how much work and NRE it takes to make something like a $10 SoC happen. It's nice to see the advantages of scale being useful and -yay- we all get cheap XBMC players, but don't take it for granted.

joezydeco 14y ago

You realize the Beagle project is developed by TI, right? I think their marketing has been just superb on this platform, and it's a huge turnaround from the days of $4,000 EVKs for their chips.

Intermernet 14y ago
Their marketing has, indeed been superb. My issue is with the use of the term open source with regards to hardware that seems not to be. Sorry, it's really just a semantic point, but I find that marketing departments are all too aware of semantics and take advantage of them all the time. My definition of open source hardware is nicely outlined at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware . Once again, I think the project is awesome, I think the marketing, despite good, is, well, marketing.