Electronics is nowadays being a part of modern human life. Computer, Television, PDAs, Mobile phones, ,Vehicle Engines, and every field of communication, Medical science, Military requirements and everywhere….A similar boom was taken place years ago in the software field. The necessity of software with less cost and freedom opened the windows of open source software foundations like GNU. Thanks to GNU/Linux.
But the case is different in the case of electronics. Here the real source is the circuit schematic and logic. Here the source is more valuable than software distributed under GPL License. But as development goes on, the nomenclature of “opensource” is becoming relevant in electronics also. In modern digital control, the logic is not only the part of hardware and is shared by the software also. That means, hardware is likely to be same in all devices, but the complexity of logic completely depend upon the program itself. That is what is I want to emphasize “opensource” is being relevant in the filed of electronics also.
In older age, it was easy to 'hack' the circuit by the method known as 'Screw Driver Engineering'. But as micro electronics development goes on, a single chip can hide most of the important logic to the end user. The arrival of microcontrollers again increase the complexity of hacking. These technology is extremely useful where security is required. The same security issues exists in software field also. But a programmer can hide important parts of program from the user. This is considered to be severe from the perspective of openness. The similarity in the electronic field and the computer software field gives us a way for a new revolution - open source electronics.
Another good website concerning open circuits.
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