Slashdot-20110615-benwpan
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[edit] Intro
This page was the result of noise flipping bits on the qi-hardware.com server. Any participating entropy and the law of thermodynamics disclaim any authorship in this work. Regard it as public domain.
maybe don't mention tuxbrain and/or sales directly, else editors may think it's spam. tuxbrain is linked from werner's page anyways
[edit] NanoNote Goes Wireless
When people come across the NanoNote open-source hand-held, the question first asked is often: "Does it have wireless?", and until now the answer was "no". Getting wireless into a design driven by the objective to keep things open turns out to be surprisingly difficult, as nearly all potentially suitable WIFI chips on the market require proprietary firmware or are otherwise encumbered.
The workaround that finally brought users their longed-for wireless connectivity was to abandon the WIFI spec altogether and connect the NanoNote to their network with a dongle in the micro-SD slot, and a matching USB dongle that plugs into a computer. Based around hardware supporting the open 6LoWPAN specification over an 802.15.4 physical layer, Ben-WPAN is not aimed at high bandwidth but at energy efficiency (3 mW for 10 m range) and easy production and reuse.
After months of hard work, the first batch of working WPAN dongles just saw the light of the day and mostly survived initial tests. Want to see the ugly details? All design and source files, including production documentation, are published under Creative Commons and/or GPL compatible licenses.
[edit] NanoNote Goes Wireless v2
Even though completely copyleft, the NanoNote hand-held platform failed to get the attention of many due to its low specs and the lack of wireless connectivity. The objective to keep things open had its price, and especially wireless technology is a mine-field of patents and NDAs.
Now a few gifted hackers designed an add-on card to bring wireless to the NanoNote. It's not what you would expect: WLAN compatibility was sacrificed, going for the less encumbered IPv6 over 802.15.4 standard instead. The resulting dongles won't win a price for the highest bandwidth, though they excel at simplicity, energy efficiency and manufacturability.
Want to see the ugly details? Designs, source code and production documentation are published under open source licenses.
[edit] and a version for slashdot.jp ? :)
コピーレフトとはいえ、『本』(Ben) NanoNoteという携帯型プラットフォームは取り上げられないことが多い。なぜなら、スペックが低く、無線LAN機能が無いからだ。完全にオープンなデザインには…
todo